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Gift for The Swingbridge Community Boat as it says au revoir to Woking until next year.

Petrofac Engineering & Construction Ltd, Woking a company which has operations around the world, is making a £6,000 donation to help The Swingbridge Community Boat enterprise much closer to home.

Petrofac Engineering & Construction Ltd, Woking, a company which provides a range of project services to the global oil and gas industry, is making a £6,000 donation to the Surrey Care Trust’s Swingbridge Community Boat, which helps people develop new skills while helping the local community.

The donation is part of a group-wide Environment month ‘Planet Petrofac’ which was launched on 1st November.

At a formal cheque presentation on Friday (October 31st) at Bridge Barn, Woking, Rob Jewkes , Managing Director said “The environmental work carried out by the Surrey Care Trust on the Swingbridge boat is playing a major part in preserving the heritage of the Basingstoke Canal whilst providing work-related training for offenders and volunteers. In line with the launch of our Environment month, Petrofac are delighted to be contributing to this valuable work and to be supporting such a unique organization.”

Swingbridge Community Boats are a familiar sight on the River Wey in Guilford and Basingstoke Canal. The new boat was officially launched in Guildford this summer and then spent three months on the Basingstoke Canal. It worked on the Woodham flight of locks - cleaning, sanding down and painting the lock beams, bollards and footbridges, and also cleaning the stepping stones around the locks.

In recent weeks it has been clearing the canal in Woking town centre. At the beginning of November it is moving to the Thames at Molesey near Hampton Court to work with a conservation organisation which has Sir David Attenborough as its patron, the Thames Landscape Strategy. It will be back in Woking next year.

The original Swingbridge Boat, launched five years ago, has established a reputation for the valuable environmental work carried out by the Surrey Care Trust’s extensive team of volunteers, who often work with offenders.

Together, they clear skiploads of rubbish and litter, cut back overgrowing vegetation, tidy up towpaths and adjacent land, helping to enhance it as valuable public open space and also preserving its value as a wildlife habitat. They carry out bankside repairs, work on boardwalks and fencing, refurbish lock gates and develop useful new skills in the process. Offenders will now have the opportunity to use their time on Swingbridge to gain nationally-certificates which count towards a qualification. Volunteers also have the opportunity to achieve qualifications recognising the new skills they gain in crewing and boat management while working with Swingbridge.
The £30,000 cost of building the new Swingbridge 2 was raised from three £10,000 donations from Thames Water, Woking Borough Council and the Thames Heritage Trust, while a £50,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund is helping towards the running costs of the boat, including staff, tools and equipment for two years. The Surrey Care Trust has to meet the rest of the costs from fundraising and donations.

Swingbridge2 will now be an all-year-round work and training boat while the original boat, Swingbridge 1, will continue to give summer trips on the Basingstoke Canal and the River Wey in Guildford to people from local community groups. In the winter it is providing educational trips for young people, skills training, team building sessions and corporate days.

Registered charity number 285543

www.surreycaretrust.org.uk

1 Old Elstead Road, Milford, Surrey GU24 8QX

• Swingbridge Community Boats