Firstly a big thank you to all those that braved the appalling weather wednesday night and came to the talk given by Alison Hamer from English Heritage on the issues facing the protected wreck sites off our coasts.
25 divers from Eastbourne BSAC, Tunbridge Wells Sub Aqua Club, Rother Diving Club and Meridian Divers listened to Alison's talk on what English Heritage are doing about these protected sites and how divers can access the sites and become involved in projects and even become licensees of some of these sites.
Alison also fielded questions from the floor on a variety of issues. It became very clear during the talk that protecting sites is a mammoth task due to the lack of funding and in reality there is only Alison doing the job of policing.
After Alison had finished the talk there was a chance for the different clubs to network with each other and it soon became very clear that there is a willingness to join forces and work on a particular project with a view to perhaps becoming the Licensees of a particular local site.
It is felt that a working group of volunteers from each group could meet to formalise a project outline and take it forward. There also was a feeling that a greater degree of co-operation between local clubs and groups could be beneficial when running diving and social activities etc , which is the reason Meridian Divers was set up for.
I will be emailing all those that expressed an interest over the next few days and see if we can set up some sort of meeting and have already spoken to Alison about this.
So the evening was a real success in more ways than one and once again thank you to all those that supported the evening and made it worthwhile. Also a special thanks to Alison Hamer for travelling up from Portsmouth to give the talk and no Alison Eastbourne isn't Dover. A big surprise for me was to meet an old friend that I hadn't seen for thirty odd years good to see you Claire and hubby Keenan, yep we have got old.
Finally thanks to Sheila and Ernie for sorting the room and the food.
Photos to follow shortly
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Sort of full circle , or possibly a coming of age? Meridian Divers was formed out of the T R Thomspon Project Team ... the asdoption of the name (MD)came following the realisation that the group had interests beyond the single project wreck. The rationale for MD (being a network) was to create a mechanism for brining divers from different places together. So it is good to see that it can host not only dives & diving opportunities but longer term projects such as the TRT and , now, possibly, a new heritage project! The MD work on the TRT , not least the NAS Award in 2008, should provide a 'trusted' vehicle for any new project with English Heritage.
All very encouraging. Good stuff!
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