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The Peaks and Dales Line campaign led by the Manchester and East Midlands Rail Action Partnership (MEMRAP), have today announced the launch of their new community based initiative, ‘Community Teams’ to significantly improve engagement across the communities the line will serve.

 

Over the last four months the team have been developing a range of new initiatives that they say will enable a wider level of community involvement and understanding of the reinstatement proposals, specifically linked to the current feasibility study development.

 

The MEMRAP team has been building on previous public events to evolve their approach to ensure the team could react dynamically to changes and updates to the feasibility study and to reach significantly more of the 20 million people who live within a hours drive of the Peak District National Park.

 

“Over the last few months we have been working hard as a team to research and develop more effective means of communicating with stakeholders and all the communities the line will serve”, says Nigel Kavanagh-Brown, one of the Directors at MEMRAP.  “This initiative has evolved from canvassing opinions across various communities, learning from other successful rail reinstatement schemes and evaluating guidance provided by experienced marketing professionals.  We have combined all of these valuable insights to establish our new Community Teams who will drive engagement in their communities and provide opportunities to support the reinstatement proposals and to ensure communities can raise their questions or concerns.”

 

MEMRAP have stated that this initiative is not part of the mandatory public consultation that is required as part of the relevant business cases, but provides an early opportunity for individuals, multiple people, groups and stakeholders to use their existing community networks as well as create new opportunities to talk and share ideas and thoughts.

 

Nigel continues, “We know that by finding connections, we will discover others, unlock doors and grow trust and confidence in our team and our proposals.  We will create opportunities and discover even more innovative solutions.  These are exciting times for communities to be directly involved in the reinstatement of a strategic railway that will connect local, regional and national communities.”

 

The MEMRAP team have launched the ‘Community Team’ initiative initially with existing community contacts and will follow this initial launch with a general public release across all the communities the line will serve.

 

Anyone who is interested in being a part of the initiative can register their interest by emailing the MEMRAP team at communities@memrap.org

 

The Peaks and Dales Line team prioritise communications with members and supporters, so if you would like to know more about the reinstatement, or even join the campaign, then please visit:

 

 https://www.peaksanddalesline.co.uk