the local population had decreased by 9.5%. In reply, those on the side of retention argued that closure of the line at a time when government policy was to encourage industry to move to the Borders area would send the wrong message and asked the Minister not to reach a final decision until publication of a report by a group of University of Edinburgh consultants, James Wreford Watson, Percy Johnson-Marshall and James Nathan Wolfe, on the development of the Borders region. The report – The Central Borders: A Plan for Expansion – was delivered to Willie Ross on 19 April and, while concluding that the economic well-being of the region depended on good transport links with Edinburgh, it was nevertheless equivocal on the need for the Waverley Route and its recommendations concerned road transport rather than rail. The Waverley Route's fate was decided at a meeting of the MCEP on 21 May chaired by Peter Shore, Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, and attended by Willie Ross, Marsh, Tom Urwin, Ray Gunter, Dick Taverne and Ernest Fernyhough. Two supporters of the line – Antony Crosland and Lord Brown of Machrihanish – were absent. After hearing arguments on both sides, Shore summarised the committee's opinion in favour of closure throughout "as quickly as possible", noting that the effect on the movement of freight traffic would be minimal and that inconvenience for some passengers was an inevitable consequence of any closure. Following the meeting, Ross escalated the matter to the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, begging him "to look at the cumulative consequences of our course of action on our standing in Scotland". Marsh countered with a memorandum which stated that closure would affect "only about 200 regular travellers [...], of whom all but 30 would be adequately catered for by alternative bus services", and that the subsidy required to continue the passenger service would run into more than several million pounds per year. He was supported by Peter Shore, who sent a separate memorandum referring to the Central Borders study and its lack of support for the line. The Prime Minister replied to Ross on 5 June indicating that he saw no reason to reopen the MCEP's decision. An official statement by Richard Marsh in the House of Commons on 15 July 1968 confirmed the Waverley Route's demise. A petition against closure, with 11,678 signatures presented to the Prime Minister in December