The Wendover Arm Trust Working Party News, Issue 130, December 2018
Compliments of the Season and a Happy New Year to all our readers
My own grateful thanks to all our volunteers who have worked so hard on site and in some very bad weather conditions.
Thanks also to all those other volunteers who have worked so hard to keep the Trust running and raise the finances to enable restoration to carry on.
November and December Working Parties
Apart from a reinforced concrete apron and new wing walls at the old wharf wall at Whitehouses Stage 3 lining was completed.
Lining of Stage 4 has commenced and, as you can see from the photograph, a start has been made on both banks.
After making an early start to the December working party Bob Barry project managed a remodelling of the car park area at Little Tring.
As can be seen in the photo, the general area at Little Tring had become somewhat muddy.
To avoid heavy plant using the same roadway as volunteers’ cars, the car park has been moved to the Little Tring Road side. This allows heavy plant to move to and from the working site through a new gate on the opposite side.
As you can see from the photograph there is now a clean area dressed with MOT quality road stone for car parking, accessible from Little Tring Road, clear of the route now to be used by heavy plant. Heavy plant operators must keep clear of this area and the approach road at all times. Also please use care not to deposit mud from dirty boots wherever possible.
Diesel store
At the same time as re-siting the car park the diesel store was moved nearer the entrance, as the delivery lorry was having difficulty reaching the old store and also suffering from muddy wheels resulting from our very bad ground conditions. The store is now a four barrel bund container to cope with any leakage without affecting ground conditions.
Tidy Friday
The work of John Reynolds and his team in keeping our restoration tidy is working very successfully, thank you all. See schedule on page 3 for dates.
Defibrillator
We now have a defibrillator on site in case of an emergency.
Whitehouses
It would seem likely that the bid for funds from the Leader Fund will not be forthcoming so a decision may soon have to be made as to whether our volunteers carry out the work at Whitehouses at a cost in the order of £25,000 or fund a CRT contractor to carry out the work at nearer three times this cost.
We are very fortunate in having the services of a volunteer, Mikk Bradley, who is a civil engineer who has formerly worked for CRT. He is currently revising the plans for the concrete apron and wing walls and seeking the approval of CRT for these plans. Once this is done we can consider whether or not to do the work with the Trust’s volunteers if Leader funds are not forthcoming.
General Notes
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 Tony Bardwell 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.
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