The news that John Collingwood has died will have sent shock waves through this community, since he had such an impact on so many lives in so many ways.
I first met John through an early iteration of Sustainable Bridport and he always had a keen interest in all things “green” and this extended to public transport. He didn’t need much persuading to come to the WATAG public meetings and he was a regular attendee for the last 16 years or so. He joined our committee in 2015 and held all the senior roles of Secretary, Treasurer and Chairman; indeed he was still Vice Chair until he had to stand down at the end of April due to ill health.
He was a tower of strength to four Chairs, before taking on the role himself, and virtually single handedly rewrote our ‘Constitution’ to bring it up to date. Even our current logo was his design!
A very physical man, he demanded – rightly – that we include “Active Travel” in our mission statement, and took a keen interest in both the ‘Chideock Path to Bridport’ (that currently runs between Chideock and Quarr Lane) and the campaign by Loders Transport Group to provide a safe route for walkers and cyclists to access Bradpole from Loders. We hope both schemes will come to fruition.
He will be greatly missed by all who knew him and we send our sincere condolences to his family.
Bob Driscoll
WATAG Committee member and former Chairman