A Quieter Week - but still plenty going on

After all the excitement last week of winning the two funding grants, it was time to revert to the more normal situation of quietly making progress as best we can.  Part of that is the need for what sometimes seems a never-ending round of meetings.  This week for example we have: a Project Board meeting, which approves new projects and monitors progress on current ones; a Finance Committee meeting where directors meet regularly to review overall activity and make decisions which cannot wait for a full Council meeting; and, a meeting of the Wiltshire Swindon and Oxfordshire Canal Partnership.  This organisation brings together a large number of organisations which want to foster the restoration of the canal.  Like every organisation, we are trying to find ways to reduce the number of meetings, and to use efficient modern methods to reduce the travelling and time involved.

However the team working on the Cocklemore Brook culvert will not be wasting any time in spending the grant from Yorkshire Building Society, I am sure.

Now that we have secured £50,000 for the Studley Wildlife Trail, the Trust is looking for a Project Leader to run it, and an ad for this will be appearing in the next edition of Dragonfly.  It will be a part-time opportunity, starting from February 2015 running to December 2015.  Some remuneration is available.  The person will need good communication skills as they will be working with local community groups, schools, other volunteer groups, Wiltshire Wildlife Trust and Friends of the Earth.  An interest in wildlife and ecology is also important.  As the dredging programme for the Studley Grange landfill site will be running in the Spring, there will also be a need to work with the overall Project management and contractors and to slot into their timescales. 

Our application for planning permission and Listed Building consent for some initial works at the Peterborough Arms has been submitted, and Dave Stirling is maintaining close contact with the officers in Wiltshire Council to shepherd it through as smoothly as possible.  We have also identified a list of tasks that can be carried out by volunteers, and the team are organising a work-day to complete them.

I was going to remind you that the Santa trips are running, and urge any of you with children or grand-children to take advantage of these super opportunities for an unusual day out.  But it is too late!  I am delighted to say that they are fully booked.  This is a really terrific achievement by the boat team, involving a lot of work to organise the trips: take all the bookings; find skippers, crews and Santas; prepare individual presents for every child; as well as the sheer hard work of running up to five separate trips per day.  All in all, a great advertisement for the Trust, and a great contribution by the team.

Chris Coyle