The first
draft of the Wilts & Berks contribution to the CRT/IWA national survey of
waterway restorations is currently being checked and verified before being
submitted. The purpose of the survey is to
capture what is the scale and value of waterway restoration, to see what
progress has been made since the last report by IWAAC in 2006, and to assess the current status of
each project. The statistics of the
Wilts & Berks are not for the faint hearted! – 78 locks to be built, 163
bridges ... overall a cost in excess of £300m to fully restore the waterway. We know we will not do it all at once but the
strategy of restoring discrete sustainable sections with what is called in the
survey a ‘meanwhile use’ seems to be very sound.
One
significant meanwhile use is a trip boat and it is gratifying to see the new
landing stage at Waitrose in Swindon is having a significant effect in boosting
passenger numbers. It is now becoming a priority to seek funding for another boat and choose a suitable location to run it
Weather
permitting the next few weeks will see very obvious progress at Studley Grange.
The schedule has significant excavations at the eastern end (Butterfly World) by
the start of September.
WBCT is
moving forward with the significant management change proposals with the
intention of consulting as many members of the Trust as possible before the
AGM. Meetings are being arranged with
branches where possible, and we are planning on holding extra ‘non-branch’
meetings for those members who are not affiliated to branches, or cannot get to
their branch meeting.
Otherwise as
you can tell from the grey skies its holiday time so business as usual we hope
will resume in September!
Ken Oliver
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