A Very Informative Flood Training Evening

Many thanks to Trudy and Nick from the Environment Agency who gave us a very informative presentation yesterday evening to kick start our Flood training. A good turn out of volunteers with some new faces (welcome!) were there to hear the presentations from the EA and yours truly on why flooding occurs, how it is managed and what we as Volunteers can do to help. The training notes are now up on our blog so please do take a look. Thanks again to Jez for saving my IT bacon!

(Nick Reed Explaining why Flooding occurs)

 

Great to see a good turn out for our guests. Next month will be Flood Water Awareness Training with Serve On. Should be good


Look forward to seeing you there


Kind Regards



Paul Robertson

Clearing the Way at the Swan!

A small band of volunteers met down at the Swan Hotel this afternoon to clear an area in the car park ready to store bulk bags of sand from Wiltshire Council for Sandbags. Many thanks to Paul Goodge and the use of his van,

Here is our willing band (Tony, Paul, John, Amy, and Mike). Thank you everyone for your hard work. Just need to organise the sand delivery now!

And whilst we are at it the Swans outside the Swan are making the most of the low river levels to start raising their family for the year. I've been told there are four eggs!

Here is hoping the weather stays relatively calm so the signets have time to hatch out!

Thanks to everyone today

Looking forward to our training night this Wednesday - Guest speaker from The Environment Agency

Kind Regards



Paul Robertson

Sand Storage at the Swan Hotel

A lot of thank you's on the blog lately and with good reason! Now a big thank you to James at the Swan Hotel in Bradford on Avon. He has very kindly agreed to allow us to store sand for our sandbags in the Hotels car park. This will make a huge difference to the volunteers as we will then not have to transport what is a very heavy material long distances to where it is needed. Wiltshire Council has agreed to give us sand to fill the sandbags with. These come in rather unsightly bulk bags which degrade when left outside for too long. To keep our sand tidy and usable for the long term we really need a couple of large grit bins but these things are not cheap.

Is there anyone or company out there who would generously consider sponsoring a grit bin in part or whole for our sand store please do get in touch.

The sort we need cost about £450-00p as they are very big!



http://www.gritbins.net/grit-bins/grit-bins-extra-large/giant-50-cu-ft-recycled-grit-bin-1415-litre-capacity-1

Please do drop me a line at boa.cevs@gmail.com if you think you can help

Many thanks



Paul Robertson

A MASSIVE THANK YOU TO WILTSHIRE FIRE AND RESCUE SERVICE

I have just been informed by Wiltshire Fire and Rescue service that they are happy for us to put the storage container for our equipment in the Fire station yard at Bradford on Avon! This is excellent news and a big vote of trust and confidence in the volunteers by the Fire Service. We must not let them down!

Many thanks to the Station Manager Andy Green, Alex Brown at their estates department and everyone who made this decision possible at Wiltshire Fire and Rescue.

Onward and upwards!



Kind Regards




Paul Robertson

A BIG Thank you to the Bradford on Avon Area Board!

Last night I presented our bid for grant funding from the Bradford on Avon Area Board for £1750-00p towards the cost of a storage container for our equipment. I am very pleased to say that the Board voted unanimously to grant the application. This is a very big step for the CEV's as without anywhere to store our equipment we would not be able to do any of the vital resilience work we are training to do.

A massive thank you to the Area Board Members and the Wiltshire Council Officers who supported our bid.

Hopefully the below will soon be a reality! Just need to finish negotiations as to where it will go!

Kind Regards



Paul Robertson


CEV Senior Coordinator