Agreement Signed With The Royal Borough

Wednesday 31st March 2010

I’m very pleased to say that all the wait has been worth it.  Our agreement with the Royal Borough was signed last night and we gave over our access fee.  This will give us access to the centre until this time next year: Thursday nights and weekends and other times by arrangement, as long as there are not youth groups using the Centre.

Harry Whelan (the Centre Manager) is very supportive and has already suggested that we might like to join his adult group for a paddle on Good Friday (time to be confirmed) if there are spaces.  He also suggests that as the Centre is closed over the weekend we might like to go paddling on Easter Sunday.

I think that provided we paddle in safe, controlled, properly led groups we will have a very fruitful relationship with the Royal Borough.  So apologies in advance that our sessions will not be a free-for-all, but they won’t be much different from how Battersea run their Thames sessions.  Tight, safe, with a nominated leader for each group – that’s how it needs to be.

Tomorrow night (Thursday) is going ahead as a sort of supervised club-led session, with 8 spaces available.  Phil has been in touch about how to sign up for it through the website.  Harry will come out with us for one final time, give us two sets of keys for the centre, and after that we are pretty much free to paddle the river from Cremorne down to Westminster, or upriver as far as we like.  Once we get more experience we’ll be able to go further into the City – where the boats are faster, the traffic more congested and the hazards generally higher.

Special thanks to Phil and Harry who have been instrumental in getting us to this stage.

Looking forward to seeing you on Thursday, or Friday, or Sunday!

Andy (Chair)