Recent article from stratfordreport.com:
http://www.stratfordreport.com/2007/10/01/stratford-and-warwick-waterways-trust
THE VITAL LINK,
The Newsletter of SWWT.
Issue 3. July 2007
After some delays here is our longer than normal third edition of Vital Link. We hope that you will like the new format and style - but above all the content. Its future frequency will be governed, to a large extent, by the timing of the planned events and unplanned happenings that influence our goal: but, as the pace of our project increases, we believe that, from now on, we will be producing at least two editions per year. Your comments or criticisms of this, and your alternative or additional ideas for keeping in-touch will always be very welcome.
1/ A Review Of The Last Twelve Months:
The Barbecue - May 7 th 2006:
All eyes were on Tiddington on the first Sunday in May last year, when in perfect summer weather several hundred of us descended on Simon Savidge's garden for a memorable barbecue. Coming at the conclusion of the IWA Diamond Jubilee weekend in Stratford, and attended by our patron Timothy West and Prunella Scales, it attracted significant nationwide support and media coverage from the wider waterways movement: but perhaps more important was the interest and support shown by local civic dignitaries and officials. Much valuable networking was done, and last but not least it was a great financial success.
Summer Shows:
Through the summer we attended waterway festivals and gatherings at Braunston, Saul and Beale Park . Our Project Director Simon Savidge, and our Hon Sec. Roger Clay, must be thanked for the long hours and hard work that they put into this activity. Attendance at such shows not only raises our profile, and shows the importance of our project within the national context, but it also helps with recruitment. In fact Simon and Roger's investment has already shown returns as our membership is now well past the 200-mark – a creditable figure for such a ‘young' waterway group.
Local Activity:
Our profile-raising and networking is not confined to the summer months, and we are only too aware of the importance of local activities and local friends. For more than a year now we have been active members of the Stratford Town Management Partnership . As a result and particularly through the hard work of our Chairman John Macartney-Filgate, and Project Director Simon Savidge, we have gained significant support from within Stratford 's business community. More recently John, Roger and Simon have made presentations to both Stratford Town Council and Stratford District Council . Councillors and council officials of both these bodies now have a better understanding of the issues involved in opening the navigation - and its considerable benefits to both town and district.
New Council Members:
Over the last twelve months we have been pleased to welcome four new members to Council: they are :- Roger Harrison - Chairman of the Lower Avon Navigation Trust, and Treasurer of the Upper Avon Navigation Trust. John Taylor – Engineer, and BW's former Head of Water Resources. Ian Fletcher - Chairman of IWA's Warwickshire Branch; and Bob Scott - a boater and prominent Wellesbourne businessman. Their disparate skills and experience are most welcome. High among the anticipated benefits of this augmenting of our ‘management team' will be a more-sure and speedy development of the feasibility and impact studies that we must produce before gaining a full local acceptance of our plans. Also, in future - in our drive for new members, and the widening and strengthening of our local government and community links - we will not neglect you, our existing members (as we feel that we have done over the last year). We will improve our communication with you. This newsletter is just the start.
Charitable Company Status:
In October – having successfully negotiated the various administrative hurdles and minefields - we became a fully registered Charitable Company - with the same status and a similar Memorandum and Articles of Association to those of the other two Avon Trusts. Our new registration numbers may be seen above.
Hearts & Minds – 1:
Also in October, we organised a litter-pick in Warwick Castle Park . Simon Savidge, Roger Clay and Ian Fletcher from the Trust, and Mike Brain - Chairman of Stratford District Council - were helped by volunteers from Tesco in Warwick and Motorola UK . Within just three hours, the team of 20 pickers gathered some 3 cubic metres of rubbish (weighing nearly half a ton!) from the river bank downstream from, and within sight of, the castle. This very worthwhile exercise generated good publicity on a number of different levels, and will no doubt be repeated in future.
Hearts & Minds – 2:
More recently, in March, Simon and John organised an outing for a group of children, parents and teachers from St. Gregory's Primary School in Stratford ; a boat trip on the river downstream from the town was preceded by a walk along the Stratford Canal – to see and understand the working of locks. The children dressed in traditional boat-family dress, and - not to be outdone - so did Simon. The day included quizzes and a picnic, and concluded with a look into the back-cabin of a traditional narrow-boat – moored by prior arrangement in Bancroft Basin . The children thoroughly enjoyed their day out, as did the parents and teachers - who also really appreciated the multi-facetted experience and the benefit of ‘fun-learning' for their children.
January's EGM:
In January we held a well-attended Extraordinary General Meeting at The Holiday Inn in Stratford , the main purpose of which was to confirm the formal dissolution of the original (unincorporated) trust, and to give a formal progress-report on the affairs of the new charitable company - SWWT Ltd. One of the most important - and certainly the most pleasing - announcement made on the day was of the receipt of two significant donations to the trust. The first from British Telecom of £5,000 – made through the kind offices of life-member Sir Christopher Bland; and the other for £10,000 from Council member Bob Scott's company Equidebt Ltd of Wellesbourne. These generous donations go a long way towards the funding of a ‘Feasibility Study' – the first of a number of studies that we must undertake before further significant funds can be unlocked, and any physical work undertaken.
Regional Profile:
In addition to local radio and newspaper coverage of some of our activities, we have been fortunate in obtaining TV coverage of our cause through programmes such as ‘Heart of The Country' and more recently ‘WaterWorld'- where a TV crew spent a day with Council members Bob and Simon on Bob's boat ‘ Lothlorien' . This produced some excellent publicity for us in an extremely popular programme – hosted of course by our patron.
2/ Looking Ahead :
We await the result of our application to the IWA Restoration Committee for a grant that we hope will take us nearer to completing the funding of our ‘Feasibility Study'. We hope to order this study from independent consultants within a few months, and receive it within the year. Other local funding sources will be sought in the near future.
We are holding a social (and recruiting) event for members in the form of a pig-roast and barbecue with entertainment in Simon's gardens at Tiddington on Sunday, Sept 2 nd from 2:00pm onwards. Park in the Bowls Club at OS ref SP218558, come in your own boat or by trip boat from the Holiday Inn mooring (1:30pm). All members welcome, doubly so if you bring along a new recruit. If it is even half as good as our last event it will be great, so put it in your diary now and come on along and meet the team !
Our first full AGM as a Charitable Company is planned for Sept 8 th 2007, 2:30pm at the Holiday Inn , Stratford . All members welcome please come and make your views known..
Finally our programme of meetings and presentations to local authorities and other groups continues apace with diary entries to mid 2008 !
STOP PRESS !
We have just heard that we have been awarded a £5,000 grant towards our Feasibility Study by the Restoration Committee of the Inland Waterways Association. Well done to Andrew and Roger for processing the application, and our thanks to the IWA.
‘A Year of Steady Progress'.
The Stratford & Warwick Waterways Trust Ltd. (SWWT Ltd.) held an Extraordinary General Meeting at The Holiday Inn Stratford on Saturday last January 20 th ; the prime purpose of which was to approve the setting up of SWWT Ltd. as a charitable company – limited by guarantee.
Chairman, John Macartney-Filgate, also took advantage of the occasion to inform the large number of members present that – “2006 had been a year of steady progress for the Trust.” This progress included a significant increase in membership – both individual and corporate: and the receipt of a number of large corporate donations to the Trust. He concluded by confirming that such donations will be used to help to fund a formal Feasibility Study of the project to link Stratford and Warwick – one of the Trusts prime aims in 2007.
The meeting itself concluded with the unanimous adoption of a proposal to give formal assurance to the miller at Charlecote Mill that, in creating and maintaining a navigable link on the River Avon between Stratford and Warwick, the Trust would do nothing to upset the viable operation of the mill
View the SUPPORTING CASE
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