STAFF at Shepley Bridge Marina, Mirfield are dusting off the red carpet again ready for Prince Edward's visit on Thursday.
Marina-based charity the Safe Anchor Trust will be welcoming the Queen's third son, who is launching the Marina Project.
He will spend an hour there, touring the facilities being introduced to groups who regularly use the narrowboats during the sa
iling season, which begins mid-March and runs to the end of October.
The Marina Project has seen a new chalet built by volunteers at the trust, which takes people on canal trips in their wheelchair-friendly barges and longboats.
The Safe Anchor Trust has around 30 regular volunteers, but many more participated in the project and everyone involved is proud of what was achieved.
The prince will be joined at the launch by Mayor of Kirklees, Coun Jean Calvert.
Peter Gummer, who is active with the trust and is married to the chairman Jane, said: "My wife and I are looking forward to the launch of the Marina Project tremendously and we are very proud of the trust and our achievements. We are very, very lucky people and it is such a fantastic project."
The Safe Anchor Trust, set up in 1995, was one of only two charities in West Yorkshire to be awarded the Queen's Golden Jubilee Award in 2003.
It has also been named a beneficiary of the Duke of York's Community initiative. The marina also played host to royalty in March 2004, when Princess Anne visited.
Prince Edward's wife Sophie also visited Mirfield in November 2006, when she opened a therapeutic centre at the Hollybank Trust.
On his visit to Yorkshire, Prince Edward will also visit the Emmerdale set to celebrate the 5,000th programme and watch a performance of Shakespeare play Hamlet in Leeds.
The full article contains 307 words and appears in Mirfield Reporter newspaper.
