Yorkshire Building Society Lasting Legacy

Vote to support grant from Yorkshire Building Society’s Lasting Legacy Fund

The Society has pledged £150,000 to leave a lasting impact in the communities it serves & the Wilts & Berks Canal Trust applied for a £10,000 donation from the Society’s Lasting Legacy Fund.

WBCT is one of 30 charities to be selected for the public vote.

If successful the £10,000 will to repair the 200 year old brick culvert under the restored canal at Pewsham that has collapsed.

You have until 31st October to vote.

www.ybs.co.uk/legacy

Water adds value video

Produced  by Canal & River Trust  and the Inland Waterways Association  this new  video shows a some case studies  of canal restorations that  really  add value

 

New Video about Melksham Link

The project team tell the story  of this exciting new  plan to bring boats , walkers and cyclists  to Melksham on a new route for the Wilts & Berks Canal

 

Work at West Leaze Swindon

Bank Piling at West Leaze

The Wilts & Berks Canal Trust is carrying out important repair work at West Leaze. The purpose of this work is to stabilize the towpath and the bank; without these repairs, the bank would continue to erode, with consequent risks to the safety of the footpath. This work involves piling for a length of about 120 metres.The work has been closely supervised by a consultant ecologist as the area supports an active population of water voles. The Trust is also being very careful to work with Thames Water and other providers of services to ensure there is no risk to these services.

The contractors expect  to be finishing on about the 21st June, but that of course depends on them encountering no unforeseen surprises. Worrk is not expected to be carried out at the weekend, and normally they expect to finish by about 6 o'clock in the afternoon. After the contractors have completed the piling, there may well be work that the Trust will have to carry out to finish off the site, probably including using ‘soft edge’ coir rolls for bank protection.

The Trust is conscious of the disruption caused, by having to close the towpath, and  by the piling itself. The Trust  asks that you to bear with them  while  this essential maintenance work is carried out . If you can avoid the area of the works, it will be very helpful to allow the work to be completed in the shortest possible time.

 

Melksham Link Public Meeting

There is a Public Meeting on Wednesday 24th April at 7.30pm at the Assembly Rooms Melksham to see the latest update on the Melksham Link Plans & the Melksham to Lacock towpath route

 

Melksham Link New Bridge Design

The Melksham Link project team is considering  innovative designs for the new bridges  proposed for the scheme. The planning application design is a 'flatpack' produced by Macrete. Click here to  see a video of one of these bridges being installed

 

Melksham Link Public Meeting

The Melksham Trust together with Melksham Community Area Partnership hosted an open event to promote the proposed Melksham Link Waterway on Thursday 6 December at Melksham Assembly Hall.

Over 100 people attended the event

Read more: Melksham Link Public Meeting

 

Ken Oliver Project Delivery Officer for the Canal Partnership gave a presentation showing the overall plan of the 60 miles of the Wilts & Berks Canal  and  progress on restoration of the  various sections of the waterway.

Derek Flexer Chairman of the Melksham Calne  and Chippenham Branch of the Wilts  & Berks Canal Trust showed some of he work carried out locally  by the volunteers.

The main part of the evening was a  presentation about the design  details of the Melksham Link plans.

 

Swindon Consultation Responses Published

Forward Swindon have published a summary of the responses to the recent consultation  on the proposed MasterPlan for Swindon Town Centre .

A large number of responses indicated that  they supported inclusion of the canal in the MasterPlan.

Forward Swindon are now considering  what changes may be made .

You can read the summary of responses by clicking here

Swindon Town Centre Consultation

A new MasterPlan is being considered for Swindon Town Centre.

 Read more: Swindon Town Centre Consultation

The Consultation period has now closed

The Canal Partnership Has Commeted that  members are concerned  that the opportunity for the Wilts & Berks Canal  and its economic and environmental  benefits is being ignored in the current proposal .

The next stage of the process to  produce a Masterplan are detailed on the Forward Swindon web site

Melksham Link Planning Application Update

Information as at 25th September  2012

The scheme has been submitted to Wiltshire Council as a planning application which has now been validated. 

The reference number  is W/12/01080/FUL

You can comment on the application on the  Wiltshire Council planning  web site   by clicking  here  (Please note  due to the complexity of the application, plans and documents may not be available on this site until 3rd October)

The plans and documents are also downloadable  from Melksham Link page of this web site