THE director of the official passenger watchdog in Great Britain will be the guest speaker at the next TravelWatch event.

David Sidebottom, passenger director of Passenger Focus, will speak at a public meeting at the Villa Marina on Saturday, November 12.

He has worked for Passenger Focus since 2006 and represents the needs and interests of rail, bus, coach and tram passengers.

Before this David was the North West regional director of the gas and electricity consumer council Energywatch.

A spokesperson for TravelWatch Isle of Man said: "We look forward to drawing on David's experience of identifying key issues for passengers and establishing operator performance measurement standards which will be very helpful in benchmarking the targets we seek to achieve for services to, from and on the Island."

The second speaker at the public meeting will be Aoife Donohue, who is the media and communications manager for Aer Arann. Aoife will be the first Aer Arann representative to attend a TravelWatch public meeting.

Everyone is welcome to attend the meeting on November 12. Admission is free. Doors will open at 9.30am for a 10am start. The meeting will finish by 1pm. Refreshments will be served.

For more information on TravelWatch visit www.travelwatch-isleofman.org.