Good Energy volunteers praised for “enthusiastic” work on Wilts & Berks Canal

By Peter Davison

12 September 2023

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Wilts & Berks Canal Trust volunteers Howard Yardy (left) and Martin Palmer (right) with the Good Energy team at Pewsham Locks. Photo by Justin Guy

The restoration of the Wilts & Berks Canal received a welcome boost after a team of Good Energy volunteers swapped deskwork for digging.

Staff from the renewable energy company in Chippenham lent their support to the creation of a new woodland and wildflower meadow alongside the nearby waterway.

They helped with protecting hedgerows and sowing seeds at Pewsham Locks, as well as planting trees at Naish Hill.

Their work forms part of a larger project by the Wilts & Berks Canal Trust to create a new wildlife corridor alongside the stretch which is steadily being restored between Chippenham and Lacock.

The visit was hosted by the charity’s Melksham, Chippenham & Calne branch.

Branch wildlife officer Howard Yardy said: “We were delighted to welcome such an enthusiastic team and are grateful for their support.

“They threw themselves into their work and completed in a few hours what would otherwise have taken us several days without the extra pairs of helping hands.

“We hope it will encourage other local businesses to get involved, quickening the pace of restoration and providing an even more attractive amenity for the local community.”

Good Energy sustainability and facilities manager Cherish Jackson said: “We want to power a cleaner and greener future, so we were keen to support a local project which is boosting biodiversity.

“We were joined by colleagues from sales, finance and customer operations and they all enjoyed the experience.

“It was fascinating to learn more about the history of the canal and how it’s being restored, and to play our own small part in bringing it back to life.

“Everyone’s eager to return!”

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The aim of the Wilts & Berks Canal Trust is to restore the waterway from the Kennet & Avon Canal near Melksham to the Thames & Severn Canal near Cricklade and the River Thames near Abingdon, connecting Chippenham, Calne, Royal Wootton Bassett and Swindon.

Good Energy boasts a 100 per cent renewable energy mix, consisting of wind, biogeneration, solar and hydroelectricity projects from more than 2,000 independent generators across the UK, as well as providing heat pumps and solar installations.

By Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country.

An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts.

Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.