2 June 2013 - a great day for the Trust !

It is announced today (Sunday 2nd June) that The Kennet and Avon Canal Trust (KACT) has been awarded the prestigious Queens’ Award for Voluntary Service, the highest recognition for volunteer groups in the UK. 

The Trust, which celebrated its 50^th anniversary last year, received the accolade for its leadership of the restoration of the canal and its buildings over the past half century, and for creating a landscape and amenity valued by the whole community. 

Rob Dean, chair of the KACT Trustees, says, “This is a great honour for us and an absolute tribute to the tireless work of thousands of volunteers from Bath to Burghfield, Wilton to Woolhampton, and others in between, who have given their time so generously over the past 50 years to complete the restoration of the K&A. To receive this award from Her Majesty after she re-opened the waterway 23 years ago is the icing on the cake for us.

People have given from a few spare hours to the best part of their lives to the K&A, everything from helping out in our tea rooms, crewing our fantastic fleet of boats, hours of form-filling for grants, to clearing canal beds and towpaths. I and the rest of the Trustees will always be incredibly grateful to them, many of who are sadly no longer with us, and also to our present generation of fantastic volunteers who are helping to protect and enhance the waterway for future generations. This award will propel our very necessary work into the future.”

The Trustees offer their congratulations to all who have worked in or with the Trust, to make the Kennet & Avon the wonderful asset for the nation that it is today.