From the Exec

The monthly Executive meeting discussed a proposal from Royal Wootton Bassett branch Chair, Alex Hutchings, to trial a ride-on mower for towpath maintenance. This led to the purchase of a John Deere X107 mower which was delivered on 11th September. This enables our more elderly volunteers to get more towpath mown to a high standard regularly and quickly. This, in turn, boosts the Trust’s reputation with the hundreds and thousands of members of the public who value our work for their benefit. Funding came from the Vic Miller legacy. Here are two pictures, one of the new mower and one of the neatly mown towpath result between Harris Croft and Chaddington.

We received plans for the SESRO (South Eastern Strategic Reservoir Option) project being planned by Thames Water and Affinity Water to the South West of Abingdon and Jubilee Junction. If this goes ahead, which looks increasingly likely to happen by 2036, our canal will be diverted around the north western bund and will form a key part of the reservoir content management system.
Note that the plan specifically shows the diverted canal route in this schematic drawing.

Back to Business (B2B)

B2B has been focused on how to kick-start two key programmes, Semington to Pewsham and Templars Firs to Hay Lane. We plan to set up two steering committees to coordinate the clean shoes work needed to clear the decks so that progress is seen on the ground in 2022. There are many issues to be resolved in land ownership and access and in the grant of planning consents for the new works we need to build to extend the navigable stretches we already have in water.

The Semington to Pewsham task is being steered by Dave Maloney, Paul Lenaerts, Jon Coates, Peter Wilkinson and Max Crofts.
At the tiller on Templars Firs to Hay Lane we have Steve Bacon, Alex Hutchings and Mark Wightman.