Online Talk – Nicholas McCrossan – Why Speed 2?

President Katrina opened tonight’s meeting of the Rotary Club of Motherwell and Wishaw and welcomed all members.

She highlighted an aspect of interest from Rotary, and, this week, it is Bicycle Ambulances.

“I did not know there was such a thing as a bicycle ambulance but for those of you who read your Rotary Magazine for April/May more closely than I did you may have seen a small article on ‘Supporting Bicycle Ambulances’.

These are for remote areas of Africa where they say 75% of maternal deaths during childbirth could be avoided by the provision of enough bicycle ambulances. These are provided by Trans-aid, the bikes plus equipment etc. cost £500 each.

The article is about the Rotary Club of Canterbury Sunrise who raised £1,500 with a golf event, then matched it with Rotary District 1120 (which is Kent, East Sussex and Gibraltar), their donation to Trans-aid was actually £3,000.

The charity Trans-aid do a lot more and they have a very interesting website which is www.transaid.org.

Katrina introduced our speaker for this evening, Nicholas McCrossan, a Senior Civil Engineer, who gave a presentation on ‘High Speed 2’ – the rail project he was working on.

During his presentation he sought to dispel the negative comments about HS2 that frequently appeared in the newspapers, television and radio. His presentation was structured around – What is HS2? – Why do we need it? – Why is it so expensive? – What are the benefits? – What are the future challenges?

Some interesting statistics were – cost £106 billion, 25 new railway stations, 30 million people on the route, 50-minute journey time reduction from Glasgow to London, 7 million new trees.  It was a 20-year project with phase 1 (London to Birmingham) due to open in 2031 and phases 2a and 2b to follow, terminating in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

A number of interesting questions from members followed on from Nicholas’s presentation.

Jim Peat proposed the vote of thanks for Nicholas’s fantastic, very detailed and informative presentation which was professionally delivered. Jim’s vote of thanks was cleverly constructed and very humorous, with a play on words connected to trains and railways.

Announcements:

·                     There will be a brief EGM next week to consider the proposals of Tom McPherson as Club Treasurer and Jean Murray as Community & Vocational Convenor.  Formal notification will be sent to members, giving the statutory three days’ notice.

·                     Pigeon Derby – on behalf of the club, President Katrina thanked Paul Begley for all his hard work and for the amount he had raised for Youth Activities.  Paul said that prizes would be organised in the next couple of weeks for the overall winners and that he was looking forward to next year.

·                     The Rotary District Covid Response Project – President Katrina reminded members that the club could apply for 4 tablets to be used by organisations dealing with dementia.  So far, no-one had come forward with organisations they wished to propose.  The matter had been discussed at the council meeting that evening and various suggestions had been made.  She reminded members that the following organisations could qualify – care homes, hospitals, day centres, community charities etc.

Foundation Report:

Willie Talbot had reported that the Bonus Ball was another ‘roll-over’.

Information on what members owed re. Bonus Ball from July to September would be sent out to them and could be paid into the Charities account by bank transfer.  Winners would be paid if they were in credit.

Secretary’s Report:

A communication from RGBI that stated, “Until further notice, face-to-face Rotary meetings are not permitted.”

Treasurer’s Report:

Auditor, Bill McCallum, reported that he had completed his part of the audit and David Crichton was now in a position to carry out his part.