Wendover Arm Trust Working Party News – Issue 117, October 2016
An apology
Again I must apologise. Getting all the financial data for the six-monthly report has taken me a lot longer than expected, hence the delay in publication.
September and October Working Parties
The pipe capping up to the wing walls of Bridge 4 was completed and covered to protect it from expansion and contraction and protect the bare bed of the canal. The pipe capping through the bridge will await re-lining reaching this point.
Lining was re-commenced from Bridge 4A towards Whitehouses and was able to be viewed by visitors to the Open Day on Sunday September 4th and continued in October.
November and December Working Parties
Stage 3 profiling and lining will continue working towards Whitehouses. CRT is arranging some investigative work at Whitehouses in December.
Morgans Plant Hire
It was with great regret that we heard last month that Morgans Plant Hire had decided to cease trading and have sold their business to SRBE of Milton Keynes (they have a branch at Aylesbury).
According to my records Morgans have supplied our hire plant since early 2003 when we were fed up with the service we were getting from our previous suppliers.
Morgans service has been excellent; in particular they have provided weekend cover at no additional charge, often carried out minor repairs without charging us and never charged us for cleaning very muddy returned vehicles! Ray Orth sourced them at the time and he has kept up excellent relations with them for the last 14 years.
The down side to this change is that SRBE do not supply 6 ton tracked dumpers, a necessity as far as we are concerned. Morgans were the only company in our area to supply these vehicles and we are now faced with SRBE having to cross hire them for us from distant companies with heavy transport costs. We shall also probably have to pay for weekend cover against breakdown.
To sum it up, we are going to have to pay quite a lot more for our plant hire in the future.
Whitehouses
We are still awaiting details from CRT for their proposal for a pseudo weir and wing walls to the wharf wall at Whitehouses.
Vegetation Control
This continues under John Reynolds who is organising regular Friday dates. See page 3 for dates.
Open Day Sunday 4th September 2016
This was a great success and very well attended as well as bringing in much needed funds.
Regular parties visited the re-lining work in progress at Bridge 4A.
Many thanks to Jo Orth and those helping her who ran the tea stall in Margaret’s absence.
Lord Lieutenant of Hertfordshire
The Lord Lieutenant of Hertfordshire, Lady Verulam, came to see our restoration volunteers at work on Tuesday 6th September accompanied by Deputy Lord Lieutenant Mr Derek Townsend.
They were very impressed with what they saw including finding out that our restoration was used for Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme qualifications. Alexander Larsen, the son of former volunteer Torkel Larsen’ was on site for the full working party as part of his D of E Award tasks.
Visit by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF)
On Friday 29th September 2016 the representative of the HLF who will be responsible for our project (if our bid passes all the hurdles) visited the restoration site to learn what it is all about.
Six-monthly physical and financial progress report
I did say in the April newsletter that I would try and present the change in estimates that would arise if the HLF bid is finally successful but time has not permitted this yet so here is the usual report (see photo).
General Notes
We operate as a self-supervising group under CRT and all volunteers receive and sign for the Trust’s Restoration Handbook that includes full Health and Safety requirements for the restoration works.
The handbook is the property of the Trust; if you leave the working parties for any reason, please return your Handbook to either Ray Orth or myself.
Hard hats for use at all times and high visibility jackets to be worn on sites with mobile plant in use are kept in the store at Tringford and must be drawn/returned there.
One first aid kit is kept in the store and one in the Nissan Cabstar and each qualified first-aider will have their own kit with him/her when on site.
Also available in the store at Tringford are ear defenders and goggles that must be worn when using strimmers, angle grinders, concrete breakers and the like. CRT will supply hard hats, gloves and footwear with reinforced toecaps on request.
We normally work from 9am to 5pm (or dark if earlier!). There are breaks for morning tea/coffee, packed lunch and afternoon tea/coffee. We take our own food and drink.