WILTS & BERKS CANAL TRUST

Well the snow and ice may have gone but that bitter easterly wind has not, but I bet it soon will be! Then just watch the grass and hedges grow. The extremely inclement weather certainly put a stop to several of our workparties so we are way behind again. The WRG Christmas camp booked for Steppingstone Bridge had to fallback to reserve tasks in the Canalside Park.

Local work has had to concentrate on hedging and tidying. The canal here has overhead electricity lines running alongside and every few years a team from a contractor of the electricity board turn up to cut back trees and hedges, for safety reasons, which are under the lines. They do us a favour really as we would eventually have to trim the towpath hedge tops ourselves. They do clear up most of the ‘mess', but we are a bit fussy in West Vale so we have to go behind them and make a decent job of it, so what with that and the trimming back of the towpath vertical side of the hedgerow (an unexpected task as because it had grown particularly well in last summers wet weather), the few local volunteers have been kept very busy.

Our Canalside Park, all of the paths, especially those that connect to public rights of way, and the towpaths along the canal itself are extremely popular, being used every day (yes even when we a had a foot of snow!) by many visitors - hikers, strollers, joggers, wildlife watchers and dog walkers. One unwelcome result of the WRG camp reserve task of clearing scrub alongside the ditches at the Park was to rouse some comments from a few of the ‘visitors'. We plan to clear out these ditches, using our mini digger, during the summer months and to level the ground alongside to make more paths and so we need a clear access route. The few were annoyed with the destruction! So hasty explanations had to be published in the Parish Magazine. However it has inspired a small number of villagers to form an ‘environment group' and with our blessing they have been constructing habitats, around the park, for wildlife with the waste material that we would normally have disposed of. Tidy and wildlife don't go together! Trails for invertebrates and nests for grass snakes being just two of their constructions. All good stuff. Moving on from a small number of villagers to a number of small villagers - a local playgroup hope to use the now maturing wood that we planted on the spoil heaps in the Park as an outdoor classroom for pre-school children exploring nature and the great outdoors. There are some safety issues involved but how great to see that our park is being enjoyed by all ages. More good stuff!

Local lease negotiations for several parcels of canal land still progress slowly but very positively with much happening with one long stretch of canal. Much pouring over maps, doing calculations and making comments, site meetings and negotiations etc. are taking place and I hope to be able to report much more progress in the next issue.
Talking of maps again reminds me that West Vale back room volunteers have been busy updating the website. Our old WV site will close soon, most of its content has been ‘migrated' to the Trust site along with much updated info, especially Steppingstone Bridge progress and photos and this shortly will be joined by two walk leaflets and even more information.

Must finish now - workparty installing more fencing beacons!
And WRG are back at that Bridge at Easter.

Alan Norris - Branch Chairman.