Following a health and safety assessment with regard to Covid-19 the Buxton Site reopened for volunteer work on 2nd June. With no enclosed spaces at Buxton our working procedures are mainly related to safe distancing. All volunteers who go on to the site are given a copy of the new procedures before the start of each day.
As you may be aware the access to the site is through the McCarthy & Stone development. At present they have not restarted their development. We have a set of keys for the main gates and this allows us to park safely when on site.
Before the close down McCarthy & Stone removed a stretch of galvanised security fencing about 60 metres long. Not wanting to see an opportunity go to waste I asked if Peak Rail could have the fencing and was pleased when they agreed. With the help of volunteers, the fencing has been removed to a member’s fabrication business where we can refurbish it before we install it on our southern boundary.
For the last 5 weeks Graham Wood, Phil Capp and myself have been on site repairing the wire chain link fence to our northern boundary. The section near to the bridge was damaged in several places over the years with people trying to gain access to our site. This has now been repaired and topped off with 3 strands of barbed wire.
The neighbours land to our northern boundary had been used for a temporary store for spoil. Some of this had damaged sections of our fencing but now most of it has been repaired and a few more weeks will see this work completed.
When we first went back on site in January there was evidence that some people had been living there in a tent. Our clearance of the site before lock down seemed to have stopped casual visitors however when we restarted, I noticed the space under the platform for the water tower valves had been used. The steel door to this had long gone. The workshop at Rowsley is currently making a new door which we hope to fit soon.
Inevitable at this time of year things start to grow and with the recent rain it is now becoming quite noticeable how the weeds are coming back. Hopefully we can start on this soon so that it doesn’t get out of hand.
Our next major activity on site will be the erection of the security fencing to the southern boundary. As I mentioned earlier this is galvanised steel fencing. This will involve levelling some ballast at the top of the embankment and digging the post holes. If you have some time available to help out please let me know.
Gordon Caro