A Holiday time postcard

My apologies for the late appearance of this blog – we are in holiday season, and the various holidays of Kath, Ken and me have managed to throw the rota out of sequence, and it slipped my mind that it was my turn again. So a postcard to give you some news.
What has been happening? We have now had a couple of meetings under our new Chairman, Roderick Bluh, and he has thrown himself whole-heartedly into it all. He is obviously keen to get to grips with the issues and challenges we face, and we are already benefiting from his experience.
We continue to make progress on the Melksham Link, with background discussions going on with key partners. Now that Swindon Borough Council’s preferred partner for the next phase of the Wichelstowe development is known, we are keen to begin working with them on firming up the route for the Wichelstowe Link; we look forward to meeting them once all the formalities of their contract with SBC have been sorted out
Very good progress is being made on the landing stage at Wichelstowe; Trust volunteers are doing an excellent job, making a big contribution to the work, in co-operation with the contractor. We are hopeful it will be completed by the end of the month. The boat team of Rob and Sue have been giving thought to how the trips will operate once we can start our trips from there, so we expect that any necessary changes will have been sorted out by then.
Elsewhere, the Cocklemore Brook culvert is nearing completion. What a great job the team has done there. I am glad I have seen it while it is being done – it is one of those things that we do quite a lot of, which is to put a huge amount of effort into something that we then bury, and hope not to see again for another two hundred years.
On Friday there was (yet another) site meeting at Studley Grange, and we are now confident of starting work next week – but then we have felt that before. Everybody involved – the Trust, Biffa and Land and Water Services - are putting everything into making it happen. We have also identified a project leader for the development of the Wildflower Trail, and she has started work.
All in all another week of progress.
Chris Coyle