AGM

The ELVPW Trustees had their AGM on the morning of Thursday 23rd June in the Hope Rooms, North Berwick. Two trustees – Mike Traynor and Nick Morgan – stood down although Nick will attend Trustees meetings as a Council official. Their two seats were filled by Graham Pettigrew and John Laws. Dave Oldham takes the position of Secretary which was held by Nick Morgan. Andy Stevenson and Duncan Priddle continue as Chair and Treasurer respectively as do Dave Quarendon and Thomas Bower as Trustees. Not sure who they are? – Check them out on the Trustees page.
Priorities for the coming year were then discussed – issues such as promoting the work of path wardens by stickers on path signage and organising a SpringTyne Stroll for 2017 were raised. Linked to this latter issue, the training of path wardens for leading guided walks appeared to be well received. There was also discussion of coordinating path wardens work with that of Amenity Services staff and encouraging wardens to submit monthly reports.
There then followed a talk by Carl Howman,  ELC’s Dog Warden. Stray dogs, fouling and aggressive dogs were discussed and an interesting and informative debate followed.

News

Well I guess we’ve been so busy there has been no time to report all the news here. Fortunately Katty has done it for us! Her newsletters include a lot of our activity, and are beautifully presented – they are all stored here in our Library.

And if you want to know what the committee has been doing, all the minutes of our meetings are there too.

The Elphinstone Steppes

Last Thursday four volunteer Path Wardens and I did some work on the steps at Elphinstone leading onto the Pencaitland Railway Walk. We replaced some of the wooden uprights and dug out the weeds that had overgrown many of the steps. We then lugged whindust up the steps to re-surface them all. I am very grateful for all of the hard work that the Path Wardens put in. It was a lot of hard work on a surprisingly warm day. The steps look so much better for it all. The path leading to Elphinstone and the Railway Walk have recently been resurfaced using Ulti-trec, so the steps were looking a little scruffy until this work was done.

Nick

John Muir Country Park Wed 27 Apr

Hello folks,
Hope you are enjoying the glorious weather!
Our next task takes us to John Muir Country Park, where we will be meeting at the Linkfield car park at 10am on Wednesday 27th April. The task will be to do a general tidy up of the site, including fixing up the barbeque site, crazy pathing, some cutting back of vegetation and litter picking. Oh, and maybe a little sign painting. J
All in all it should be a great task for all to get involved with and get the country park looking its best for the coming summer season. Please let us know if you are coming so we – as always – can get an idea of roughly how many tools and whatsits to bring along.
Looking forward to seeing you there!
Brian and Tara

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Elphinstone Steps Repairs, Thurs April 21st 9.30

Duncan writes:

Contrary to what i may have said to a few of you, we are not going to be working on the River Tyne, instead we shall tackle some repairs to a flight of steps adjoining the Pencaitland Railway Walk at Elphinstone. Though a relatively small job – it will only need say 6-8 of you and should only take the morning, I trust it is one that will give both on the ground experience and a sense of satisfaction -se…eing dodgy steps made good is always satisfying and we need to do this at other sites around the county (yes Janice, I am thinking of the Tyne at Tyninghame, amongst others).

So, if you would like to attend, as i am away, can you email Nick who’ll be in charge at mailto:nmorgan@eastlothian.gov.uk

Parking: In Elphinstone as best as you can. Please don’t park on the access road / path itself as it is both new and the landowner is not keen on vehicles there.

Work to be done:
Steps to repair – between 5-7- and tidying up around their edges. Some ‘rural joinery’ practice and a bit of hauling up of whin dust from the bottom of the steps will form the basis of this task which should only take a few folk the morning.

Training. Nick is a grand step master so will guide the work.
If it is benign and butterfly-like he may divert you along these lines, too.
What to bring?
Old clothes for working in – including boots and gloves if you have them.
Bring also some food and drink for lunch
Hammer if you have on
A few spades for the group as a whole
Tools and Equipment being used on the day:
Saws – for cutting step risers
Mattock – for knocking in stakes
Spirit level – I can dream – for getting steps and risers perfectly level and vertical!
Hammers – for nailing stakes to risers
Claw hammer / crow bar for taking out any bent nails. Surely there’ll be none!

Let Nick know if you plan to come along, thanks!
nmorgan@eastlothian.gov.uk

April Events

A wee reminder of volunteer tasks this showery month (courtesy of Katty Baird)
NB: New faces always welcome! If you would like to join in with a group for the first time, please get in touch with the relevant ranger for details.
* Aberlady –Weds 6th and Sun 17th April
John; jharrison@eastlothian.gov.uk
* Yellowcraig – Thurs 7th April
Dave; dwild@eastlothian.gov.uk
* Path Wardens team task – Thurs 21st April
Duncan; dpriddle@eastlothian.gov.uk
* North Berwick – Tues 26th April
Sam; sranscombe@eastlothian.gov.uk
* Levenhall – Fri 29th April
Nick; naitken1@eastlothian.gov.uk
* John Muir CP – Sat 9th and Weds 27th April
Tara/Brian; dcv@eastlothian.gov.uk