Thank you to everyone who is helping to get the website viewed and get more people on board. We are getting great contacts from this site and facebook and this is increasing our influence without a doubt.
The Maytime Inn at Asthall became the first local business to link us to their website and Robert Courts, MP for Witney, has expressed his support in his recent newsletter.
The Green Party continue to distribute our leaflets and we are getting offers of help from around the Windrush catchment.
Responsible Planning in Burford have been really helpful in linking us to other key organisations and talking about including the river as part of the Neighbourhood Plan. We think that's a great idea.
As we continue to promote the site we are also working on practical steps. The Thames Water Biodiversity Officer is engaging with us in our request to replant lost plant life and see if we can get it to stay alive at key locations which will act as an indicator of water quality. Why wait for changes in policy and regulations? We want to see some improvements now and it is great to see a positive response to that idea.
We continue to gather information from people living at key locations near to the river or treatment works and they are really helping to fill in the gaps in our knowledge. Please get in touch if you think you might have something useful, no matter how small you think that is. It may be the key to a mystery.
Two Environmental Information Regulation (like Freedom of Information) requests are due to receive replies imminently and you will get a summary of those answers. They will be interesting I am sure.
We have some expertise coming to the website management to supplement my amateur efforts and I hope you will see an improved and easier to use site by the end of June.
The time of year when many of our 'before' photos were taken is almost on us and a professional photographer who is part of the group will be giving his time to the WASP to make comparisons with the river now. Please send us your own photos and comparisons or just written accounts of what you have observed over the years.
Here comes summer. By next year we want to be able to swim in the Windrush without worrying about what is dissolved in it...
Keep following the wasp!
