Great Western Coffee Shop

Community Rail Partnerships and Station Friends groups had the opportunity to submit entries for ACoRP's National Awards (entries closed on 20th June), and from now until 18th July, judge(s) may be visiting entrants in the area to take a look at stations and innovations that have been nominated.   These visits will be unannounced.

Can I ask members in the TransWilts area to keep a "loving eye" on the Rail Link Bus at Melksham please and let me know of anything that may need sorting (signage at all bus stops has been checked in the last few days).  I know we have competition for other CRPs for certain awards, and I wish them well even though the system sets them up to compete against us in this case. But I would love to see the publicity and spinoff from doing well in these awards coming to our part of the UK, with the fallout and kudos being given to our friends and partners rather than going to some distant places, good though they may be!

Sadly, our entries for the ACoRP awards, posted first class on 17th June for a 20th June deadline, were returned unopened yesterday.  Although I checked that they were within postal size and weight limits, it appears I made an error of some sort and was 11p short on the postage.  The Royal Mail sticker on the envelopes indicates that the entries were refused by the recipient; they were returned to sender, clearly marked on the envelopes as being from our CRP and stating "ACoRP award entries" and with the categories listed too.

There are pages of rules about ACoRP entries, and the "how to make a good entry" lecture at the ACoRP briefing at the DfT in May was very clear that the rules had to be followed to the letter.  Fair enough.  Somewhat prophetically, I said to the individual entered (individual category) that if he did well it was full credit to him, and if he didn't it was going to be down to the poor / first time practise quality of my submission.  Never have words rung truer - I believe that both of our entries, sitting on my desk beside me now, were potential winners if only they had been opened.   And I owe huge apologies to the people I entered, and the people who helped my in the preparation of the entries through commendations, photographs, proofing, etc.

The entries are still winners in my view, and I will publish them in separate threads.  The important thing is that both of them have made a very real difference in helping to bring people onto the trains - "putting new life into local lines", which (if I recall correctly) is ACoRP's marketing line.

If it is any comfort Graham, you are not alone.

I get two or three surcharged items a week due to senders' putting incorrect postage on them - and this some eight years after the system changed.  In my case I pay the charge (which by the way includes a ^1 handling fee) and where appropriate bill the customer.  It saves a lot of hassle with people phoning up claiming to have sent something which I haven't got.

A useful tip if anyone is unsure how much to put on an envelope is to take it to a Post Office.  If they get it wrong, and they do, the fact it has one of their gold printed stamps (soon to change colour) means it will not be surcharged and the matter taken up with Post Office Counters later by Royal Mail.


All that said, I totally agree they are winners and presumably as the entries were not looked at, a lot of the groundwork for next year's entries is already in place?

There is ... and indeed comfort in knowing that the system of postal pricing is complex enough for me to classify my error as "mistake" rather than "silly mistake".    Our business would, indeed, accept "postage due" deliveries just as you do, but it's up to others to have their own policy on these things and whether or not I think the policy is harsh, at the end of the day it was my error.  Post Office tip a good one - and I nearly did that!

Yet ... when the dust settles,  the important things are to say "Thank you" to everyone who's made such a contribution.   And yet more important again to have the contributions made, and have an effect.   The real reward is seeing people on the trains, and that's doubled up when you speak to people and they say "I'm here because of a door to door delivery" or "I came on the bus" or simply "please thank everyone for the service".   Whether one or some of us get called up onto a stage in Scarborough in October, to applause to to get a prize, isn't why we do it.