Last week Chris and I had the pleasure to sign the lease
from BIFFA for the kilometre of canal at Studley Grange, Royal Wootton Bassett.
The lease is for 125 years for a peppercorn rent. Thank you to all those at BIFFA who made this
possible. The Trust have been
working towards this for many years and I
think you could raise a glass of something seasonal to celebrate! Along with the planning permission that we
achieved this summer and the People’s Millions success we are almost ready to get
on with the restoration.
Normally things slow down as Christmas approaches but not
at team Wilts & Berks. Work is
continuing on several fronts – a meeting was held on Friday with the Leader of
Vale of the White Horse to discuss the
new Local plan and look at the possibilities of a Master Plan for the Vale.
Thursday was our three-monthly Partnership meeting where
partners were informed of the progress on projects that has been made over the
year. The Towpath Challenge was also
discussed and it was noted that following the project manager’s departure,
progress had stalled. Opening the towpath is essential to future restoration
and so it was decided that this should be given more priority in 2015. We will
try to set up a small team to take it forward.
2015 will also see a push on increasing the membership of
the Trust. One of our members is pulling together representatives from the
branches to form a team so expect to hear from them in the New Year with their
plans. Our membership stands at 2580 at the moment.
We are keen on developing our connections with the
business community in Swindon, and as part of that we have joined Business
West, which is associated with the Chambers of Commerce in the South
West. Chris and Ken attended one of their quarterly meetings last week,
at which business community leaders have the opportunity to meet the MPs for
Swindon, and the leader of Swindon Borough Council. At last week's
meeting Justin Tomlinson, the MP for Swindon North, gave an interesting update
on the Chancellor's Autumn Statement, and David Renard, Leader of SBC, outlined
some of the current priorities and preoccupations of the Council. Chris
was invited (with no notice!) to give the group an update of what was happening
along the line of the canal; he focused on the major progress at Melksham
including the very great economic benefits that we expect, and on the Studley
Wildlife Trail. We see this as a valuable forum for raising the profile
of the Wilts & Berks with the Swindon business community, who will in the
long run benefit enormously from the canal and associated development.
Kath Hatton
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