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Hello,
I am Rev David Heathcote. I live at present in Gloucester, but could be moving soon.
I am leading a multi faceted community project in the Berkeley Vale in the south west of Gloucestershire (not South Gloucestershire which is another county.
Most of those who follow UK railways have probably heard of it. It runs under the holistic banner of Proactive Vision. The railway is a part of the project, a part we call Berkeley Vale Railway or BVR or even BeaVeR line.
I was one of the three initial directors back in 1981 of the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway in the north east of the same county. I left that organisation back in 1989 partly due to an illness as well as other discontentments.
I effectively took a double decade sabbatical, only to return to the land of the steel wheel and road when asked to by a number of folk who saw what I had done in the past, realised what I was doing then and saw fit to encourage me to join it all together.
Instead of the usual PLC or Society led preservation railway, I decided that funding would be as multi faceted as Beaver's 'aimed at' future modus operandi.
I am intending to fund all of this community project chiefly by the deployment of my own international industrial endeavours, however, I wish to offer to loco and stock owners a place to reside and enjoy their hobby in the bargain. This applies also to the creation of an exclusive membership scheme, as applies to most if not all other private railways. (A regular democratically elected support body)
The Proactive Vision Group however, is made of an non democratic body of private companies, both altruistic and purely commerical.
We have carried out a very complex and deeply refined study on the branch, the docks, the availability of resources and the tourist potential. The findings where staggering, as this particular project, (in its entirety not simply railway based) seems to have been cocooned in a time warp. We exposed a potential which created a tsunami of interest from many quarters internationally, one of the 'prime movers' deserving of a mention, is the intense mixing of marine, wildlife along with rail transport. It also exposes the massive potential for commercial allegiance from industry outside of our own, (that is already built in)
The basic ethos of the whole of the Proactive Vision mission is Christian, with a built in training college for youth between 16 and 26 years that have undergone difficult upbringings that have created low self esteem. All of the projects different activities (including the BVR) are tools, NOT goals in their own right. Our motto is simply, "EVERYBODY BENEFITS BY EVERYBODY BENEFITING"
We will be training these young people, not as they do in the normal technical college for instance by building a brick wall for marks out of 10, then knocked down and all cleaned off for the next candidate, but to see the brick wall then left up to serve a useful function in the community at large, possibly with a small brass plaque attached to state who built the wall and who did the teaching.
Tourism potential and other forms of commerce is also being very seriously examined regarding BVR, in an attempt to created footfall and jobs in the said community.
Our organisation is called Proactive Vision, our aim is POSITIVE WHOLESALE COMMUNITY TRANSFORMATION!
We naturally have a few critics also our negative "You'll never achieve this" cynics, but they aren't doing it are they?? We have always, coming from the realms of intellectual property, know to look for the hidden meaning or agenda. By enlarge we experience massive support and are humbled by this. In relation to the support, we hear very little negative criticism (We do welcome and look for positive criticism though, especially when it carries offers of help to create remedy!
Thank you all for reading, please feel free to get back all of you as I would like to engage with you, especially in a positive manner.
Indeed can you help us in any way with this mission?
Rev Dave
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