Trust Council Minutes

Click Here to view Trust Council Minutes from Tuesday 7th December

Stoppage

Bradford on Avon

Monday 7 March 2011 - Tuesday 8 March 2011
This is for the repairs to the pump pen stop valves, ground paddle frames and the grouting of the lock.

Enquiries: 01380 722859

Restriction

Weston Lock & Kelston Lock

Saturday 5 March 2011 - Saturday 5 March 2011
The Avon County Rowing Club’s Head of the River Race between Weston Lock and Kelston Lock on the River Avon will be taking place between 9am and 4pm on the 5 March 2011.

The Avon will remain open for navigation during this time but we would appreciate it if all boats could comply with the race marshalls instructions at all times and wait as necessary for short periods to enable racing crews to pass through safely. Your co-operation is much appreciated

Enquiries: 01380 722859

Reading Branch Annual Dinner

Date : Wed 16 March 2011. 7.00 for 7.30 p.m.
Venue : 'The Griffin', 10-12 Church Road CAVERSHAM RG4 7AD (0118 947 5018)

We will have our own area for dining, but not a separate room.

Menu(s) ; 2 courses for £9.99. 3 courses for £11.99. À la carte menu. Wide range of options.

To enable us to have the separate dining area, a deposit of £10 per person is required in advance.
Please send a cheque, dated 8 March, to Andy made out to 'A. James', to be received by him not later than 7th March.
Send this with a note giving your contact details and the number of persons in your group.

On the night, open a 'tab' at the bar on arrival for your food and drinks.
Then pay at the end of the meal (after deducting your £10 per person pre-paid deposit).
Payment by cash or card (no cheques).

Some of our members are not on e-mail. Please pass these details on to them if you are in touch.
Details will also be announced at the next two branch meetings.

Andy's address : Andy James, 3 Caroline Court, Bath Road, READING, RG1 6HW.
He will not be contactable between 18 Feb and 7 March.

Stoppage Advice

Kintbury Wharf

Friday 21 January 2011 - Sunday 30 January 2011
Reed Thatcham Angling Association, are holding a fishing match around the Kintbury Wharf area on Sunday 23rd January 2011 & Sunday 30th January, start time 9.00am till 15.00pm.
Boaters are advised to reduce their speed and be considerate to Anglers

Enquiries: 01380 722859

Members News

Please find details of latest news from the Trust below

1) Canal Art Workshop

There are still tickets available for the Canal Art Workshop to be held in the Trust Offices at Devizes on the 29th January from 10am - 4pm
Relaxed course- learn to draw boats, wildlife, people and focus your observational skills. Very suitable for all abilities especially beginners.
Minimum age 16 years. Light lunch will be provided.Materials will also be provided and sponsored by HMG Paints in Andover.
All proceeds towards the K&A Trust. Tickets are available from the Trust shop in Devizes or telephone 01380 721279
See Poster below.




2) Search is on to find the UK's favourite lottery funded projects

How about nominating the Kennet and Avon Trust, follow the link below for the information on how to nominate the Trust

http://www.waterscape.com/features-and-articles/news/2939/search-is-on-to-find-the-the-uks-favourite-lottery-funded-projects

3) John Gould Award

Rose of Hungerford Man awarded John Gould Award



The nominations for the 2010 John Gould Award attracted record entries. The closing date was at the year end and the Trustees of the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust were asked to place their votes to choose the worthy winner. Never an easy task!.

Richard Snook receives the John Gould from Mike Rodd



The going was close but the winner this year was Richard Snook a hard working K & A volunteer of some 13 years. Richard is a member of the Hungerford Branch committee and the boat manager for the Rose of Hungerford. Always available when something needs to be done, such as doing emergency pump outs and repairs, ensure the boat is re-fuelled, taking on additional skippering tasks, maintaining the lift, showing potential customers around the boat, and doing the huge task of preparing everything for the MCA inspections etc. He also does much to keep the Branch active and writes the regular reports for the Butty. Richard is the very heart and soul of the Rose and is always very willing to take on additional tasks for the Trust.



The award was an idea in 1997 when John Gould MBE was honoured with a plaque by his ‘second home’ Newbury Lock Island. Nobody can doubt the dedication and example John gave us all in his work for the Kennet and Avon Canal. The award is a way of honouring others who have continued working for our waterway.

The Late John Gould MBE at the unveiling of his plaque in 1997 ( picture The Butty Spring 1997)





All the nominees should have been winners for all are great examples of K & A Volunteer spirit. The other nominees were – Mike Messam, Elaine Kirby, David Inight, and the Avon Vale Crew .



Worthy entrants for next year?













The Late John Gould MBE at the unveiling of his plaque in 1997 ( picture The Butty Spring 1997)

Warning Stoppage

Kennet & Canal to River Avon

Tuesday 18 January 2011 until further notice
Due to high water levels on the river sections of the K&A, we recommend craft do not navigate until levels subside

Enquiries: 01380 722859

STOPPAGE

Waterpoint - Crofton

Friday 14 January 2011 until further notice
The Water Stand pipe at Crofton has been switch off due to contamination and will closed until further notice. The nearest water points can be found at Great Bedwyn Wharf or immediately below Wootton Rivers Road Bridge

Enquiries: 01380 722859

VOLUNTEER TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN YOUR LOCAL ENVIRONMENT

As people make their New Year’s resolutions this January to get fit, make new friends and get out and about more, British Waterways is hoping that their new volunteering scheme on the Kennet & Avon Canal will give local residents the perfect opportunity to make a difference to their environment as well as achieving some personal goals.



British Waterways’ new volunteering scheme is looking for people to give up a few hours a month to help maintain the much-loved, 200-year-old waterway. The scheme is being set up ahead of the organisations move to become a charity in April 2012.



Mark Stephens, British Waterways’ waterway manager explained: “The Kennet & Avon Canal is a beautiful stretch of waterway, unfortunately British Waterways has limited resources to be able to keep the canal looking as good as we would like. We hope that local people will join us to help with tasks such as cutting back overgrown vegetation so the towpath is kept clear, as well as painting lock gates and clearing litter from the canal.”



Monthly working parties are being set-up at locations along the canal including: Reading, Aldermaston, Newbury, Kintbury, Crofton, Bedwyn, Devizes and Bath. Each session will run from 10am – 3pm and volunteers will be supplied with all the safety equipment needed for the towpath tasks. The working parties will be starting in February, and running throughout the year.



Karen Fishwick, British Waterways’ volunteer co-ordinator said: “There is already a brilliant volunteering spirit on the Kennet & Avon Canal, especially with organisations such as the Kennet & Avon Canal Trust. We hope that these working parties will encourage even more people to get out and about on the waterway, meet new people and find out more about their local environment. It’s quite a flexible scheme, as some people may only be able to do a few hours, whilst others might want to take part at more than one location, several times a month.”



Anyone wishing to take part in the volunteering scheme should contact Karen on 07917424590 or email karen.fishwick@britishwaterways.co.uk for further information. There’s more information about volunteering with British Waterways available at www.waterscape.com/volunteering.

Challenging times for the K&A Canal Trust

A New Year Message from David Inight, Acting Chair of the Trust Council, and Mike Rodd
2010 has been a most difficult and challenging year for the Trust.
Financially the year has been a nightmare, as it has for most charities in the UK. On the one hand the national economic situation has impacted on many areas of the Trust’s activities, especially those directly relating to trading and sales figures. At the same time, in many directions, costs have risen – for example, those incurred in achieving the legally required operating certificates for the boats via the MCA.
On the other hand, and despite an unusually high number of submissions to award-making Trusts and businesses (normally a dependable source of targeted income), 2010 has been an absolute washout in this regard. Each few weeks have seen yet more rejections (or, at best, a holding response) to applications for support for projects such as bankside volunteering, an extensive membership recruitment campaign, and urgent appeals for repairs at Crofton and Devizes. This picture, however, is being repeated nationwide and many other charities are reporting the same experience. There is clearly a huge increase in the number of applications being submitted, whilst the grant-awarding bodies are being very careful not to overreach themselves.
All this has occurred just as warnings about potential cash-flow problems, made some five years ago, have also finally come home to roost. Early in 2010 it started to become evident that although the Trust’s accounts continue to show a healthy “reserve” of nearly £1/2 million, this figure effectively represents the value of the Trust’s boats, stock, property and equipment – critical assets, but not hard, immediately accessible cash. The situation had been predicted, but it was not until this year that the impact became evident in terms of a need to dip ever more deeply into a bank overdraft to get the Trust through the difficult low income-generating months of January to April. Work by Neil Lethby, David Lindop and Mike Rodd showed that if the situation was not addressed, we could face a position in March/April 2011 where we might not be able to meet our commitments without raising additional cash against our reserves. For a charity, such a situation is potentially dangerous, and urgent action by the Trustees was therefore needed.
It was clear to the Trustees that although the Trust’s expenditure had been held well below that planned for in the 2010 budget, the reduction in predicted income required immediate attention. This was handled by a major reduction in the cost of producing the Butty, the outsourcing of the three loss-making cafés, and some staff reductions. Whist this had an immediate effect, it became evident in November that additional action was required.
All this has been happening at the same time as the whole rationale for the very existence of the Trust has been at the forefront of the minds of the Trustees. As is now well known, moves to take BW out of direct government control and form it into a Charity received additional impetus when the new government came into power - the concept apparently fitting so well with their vision of the "Big Society". The Trust Council has always been concerned about these proposals; not only do they potentially threaten the very future funding of all our waterways, but they raise many crucial questions for the Trust and its own future: Would we have to compete with the new nation-wide charity, for funding as well as for volunteers? Also, if the new government decreased its funding for BW (as it now has), how would this impact on both the existing BW and the proposed new National Waterways Charity? Finally, therefore, how could we best assist in keeping our wonderful canal alive and well under these circumstances? It was clear that the Trust would have to get involved as deeply as possible in this debate, and thus the now well-publicised pilot K&A Waterways Board was established, led by the Trust.
At urgent meetings of the Trust Council and the Enterprise Board in November and December these matters dominated the discussions. With strong leadership by the Acting Chair and the incoming Vice-Chair of the Trust Council, the MD of Enterprise and the General Manager, it was recognised not only that the Trust needed to take exceptional action to handle the financial position, but also that the very role of the Trustees needed to be examined. Each and every Trustee would need to be totally committed to the regeneration and repositioning of the Trust. In this changing model, each individual Trustee would also be required to take the lead on a specific area of the Council’s activities. It was accepted that some existing Trustees, who already had massive local loads (leading their own Branches, for example), might not have additional time available to commit to the corporate affairs of the Trust, and would need to consider stepping aside as Trustees in order to concentrate on their local responsibilities. This is turn made it imperative for new Trustees to be recruited as a matter of the highest priority.
Time has not been on our side – the BW situation suddenly escalated when the 2020 programme became the 2012 programme: the new BW Charity is now in line to be in place by Easter next year! Additionally, with the economic situation outlined earlier, we had to get the cash-flow position under immediate control – if the Trustees could not do that, the Charity Commission would need to be informed.
In light of all this, the Trust’s General Manager felt that – having been elected to Chair the pilot Waterways Board, as well as having established many external contacts and leading on relationships locally with BW – he would be better able serve the Trust as a volunteer, free from daily management duties. He also considered that the point had been reached at which much of his routine work could be taken over by one of his colleagues, whose salary would then continue to be subsidised for another year or so by the original grant awarded by the then Kennet District Council to create a managerial position. Given the expanded roles and responsibilities of the Trustees, however, this new role of General Secretary could be focused more on day-to-day tasks of managing the staff, overseeing Trust administration, and supporting the Trustees in their new dedicated lead roles.
The past three months have thus seen much action. Some Trustees have decided to concentrate on their local Branch commitments, while others have re-committed themselves to take direct responsibility for specific areas of activity, many of which had previously largely landed in the lap of either the Chair or the General Manager. After a careful search, potential Trustees were approached, and two, Pauline King and Suzanne Gaia, have already now taken up their positions on the Council, with others to follow.
Financially, the accounts for the end of the year are now looking much healthier, with Enterprise showing a real surplus of close on £30,000 – its best performance in some four years. The boats have done well, and even the new baby, the leased Kenavon Venture, has broken even in its very first year. The outsourced cafés are all starting to generate income for the Trust, instead of continuing to haemorrhage funds out. The Café at Crofton, still staffed by volunteers under the watchful eye of a Café Manager, has done exceptionally well, and visitor numbers at Crofton, Claverton and Devizes have been excellent. The savings made through having voluntary editors for The Butty has also been most significant, as has their success in increasing the advertising revenue. Finally, the departure of the General Manager has also decreased the overall costs.
Nevertheless, the Trust accounts are still of concern. 2011 will be a really tough time and many changes will still be required to ensure we are fit for purpose in a completely new environment. Following the staff restructuring described above, however, no further staff reductions are anticipated. This is the time for everyone – staff and members – to join the Trustees and Branch Chairs to ensure we are able to meet our prime reason for existing – to look after our unique and precious waterway.

Restriction

County Lock Reading

Tuesday 4 January 2011 until further notice
Following a Boat Fire, this section of the waterway is closed for investigation and pollution control until further notice.

Enquiries: 01380 722859