A meeting to discuss the potential threat to high speed rail services through Westbury and Pewsey will take place tomorrow (Thursday).

Pewsey commuters organised the event to organise lobbying of the four companies bidding for the Great Western Franchise, hoping to preserve the service, considered vital to the Wiltshire economy.

Westbury town councillor and Chamber of Commerce chairman David Jenkins said he had invited others to join him in representing the town at the meeting.

“It is important that we find out what they are doing in Pewsey so we can consider our own strategy,” he said.

“Currently we are working on our own letter to send to the secretary of state to outline our concerns, in light of the changes to the franchise tender process nationwide.”

People who use the through trains from Westbury to Paddington fear the service could suffer when the other line through Paddington-Swindon-Cardiff is electrified by 2015.

South West Wiltshire MP Andrew Murrison is working with Devizes and Newbury MPs Claire Perry and Richard Benyon to promote an improved service through the county, and will be meeting the new Minister for Transport Simon Burns to look at electrifying the line from Newbury to Westbury.

The meeting will take place at Pewsey Methodist Church at 7.30pm.