Queen rejects ‘morale-boosting’ rail invitation

Mar 6 2008 by Sarah Harris, Gwent Gazette

BLAENAU Gwent has received a right royal rebuff from Buckingham Palace which has said the Queen is too busy to visit the area.

Local Assembly member Trish Law wrote to the palace inviting Her Majesty to perform an official opening of the new Ebbw Valley railway.

The Independent AM was pursuing a campaign which her late husband Peter began eight years ago when he was the constituency’s AM.

In May, 2000, Mr Law started lobbying Buckingham Palace with a view to the Queen visiting Blaenau Gwent during her Golden Jubilee tour of the nation in 2002.

“She can’t visit everywhere,” a palace source said at the time.

Four years later Mr Law, who went on to also become Blaenau Gwent’s MP, lobbied the palace again – this time to invite Her Majesty to open the restored railway at the appropriate time.

Now, 22 months after her husband’s death, Mrs Law decided to once more take up the royal crusade.

She wrote to the Queen’s private secretary Christopher Geidt, asking that the Queen give her “most serious and sympathetic consideration” to an invitation to officially open the Ebbw Valley railway.

Mr Geidt has now replied saying such a visit would not be possible.

“Her Majesty’s diary has for many months already been heavily committed until the autumn and cannot be made to accommodate your request,” said the letter.

“I am sorry to send you this disappointing news but so pleased to learn that this milestone in the regeneration of Blaenau Gwent has finally been achieved.”

Trish Law said she was bitterly disappointed with the response.

“It’s not so much about the railway, but I just thought it would be a tremendous boost for the people of Blaenau Gwent to host the first visit here by the Queen in 40 years,” she told the Gwent Gazette.

She added: “With the closure of the Ebbw Vale steelworks and the decimation of Blaenau Gwent’s manufacturing base, Peter believed the area needed the kind of morale boost a prestigious royal visit would bring.

“I believe Blaenau Gwent deserves a morale-boosting visit from the Head of State – the first visit to Blaenau Gwent by the Queen in about 40 years.”