GWSR ‘Broadway the last mile’ share issue closes with great success on
30 April 2017!
Dear Supporters of the GWSR,
I am delighted to be able to tell you that, with the final
share applications counted and the last donations to the Trust (GWRT) banked,
the share issue closed at £1,330,000!
Yes! That’s £80,000 over the £1,250,000 we were seeking!
A huge THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO SUPPORTED US!
This extra cash will be very welcome because, as you are aware, the Broadway embankment is going to cost about 4 times what we estimated
when publishing the Share Issue Document. But with this extra money and the
normal generous support from the Trust we are in good shape to keep our
commitment to all our supporters to open to Broadway on 30 March 2018!
You will doubtless be pleased to know that the Broadway
embankment remedial work is now in process and likely to last 12 weeks. The
successful contractor in our bidding process was George Law Limited who, as you
will remember, was the prime contractor for the bridges in 2014 – that seems a
very long time ago, so much positive has happened since then!
Meanwhile the Permanent Way team are busy laying track
northwards, and the Station group are busy with the many tasks needed to be
completed before opening. The heritage station roof being constructed by our
own Steam Loco department is nearly completed and ready for trial assembly at
Toddington, after which it will be shipped to Broadway where the station
building is almost ready to accept it.
These are exciting times and there is no slack in our
volunteers’ construction timetables but thanks to your generous support they
have the means to get the job done.
Do please use your shareholder ticket vouchers and visit the
railway soon.
Finally, we will now go back to HMRC and seek their
confirmation that our share issue is, as they advised us at the outset and then
rescinded, acceptable for Enterprise Investment Scheme tax relief – watch this
space! I am not giving up on this.
All good wishes,
Chris
Chris Bristow
GWSR PLC Finance Director
