Wilts & Berks Canal Trust Executive Board

The February Trust meeting decided to set up a more formal Exec board structure focusing on the strategic plan and the expansion of the Trust as we try to speed up development of the complete canal. Forecasting for the next year, we have around £3m of project work we would like to start which means we must expand our grant income by 5 or 6 times.

To manage the increase in activities, the Trust needs to grow in order to make better progress with restoring the canal. We need more members, but also we've had a good response to our calls for volunteers with specific skills, most particularly our new CEO, Mike Gibbin, who joined us at the beginning of the year and is already making a difference. We have just appointed Peter Thomas in the new position of COO - Chief Operating Officer. Peter has a broad portfolio, looking after Branch-level activities, membership development, maintenance and much else. We also have a Risk Manager in post, and in response to our call for engineers we are pleased to announce the appointment of Steven Sexton to the post of design manager to coordinate both permanent and temporary works designs. More engineers are required to strengthen the team and further details will be posted describing those roles.. We have also had good responses to calls for Project Managers and at (literally) grass roots level our work parties are increasing in numbers and activity.

If reading this enthuses you and you might like to offer your expertise or muscles, why not contact us on info@wbct.org.uk?