Coach 5 – Coach 8 = Coach 5!!!

The transition from a double-decker coach to two single-deckers is more than a little scary! In his recent pastoral letter, Ben did a very good job of explaining why it’s a good thing for the long term future, and how hard we’re going to work to make sure that everyone has the best possible time:

 The story so far…

As many of you will know, numbers of people wanting to come to Lourdes on Coach 5, the Lancashire coach, have been steadily increasing over the past few years. This has resulted in us taking a double-decker coach in 2005 and 2006. There was no double-decker available this year and applications have been so high that a decision has been made to run two coaches from the Lancashire area: Coach 5 and a new coach, Coach 8. Hence our great new logo at the top of this letter designed by Sarah Huddy. Initially it was felt that these coaches would cover two areas- Coach 5 would cover Penwortham and Chorley and Coach 8 would cover Leyland, Ormskirk and Skelmersdale. As this is the first year, there are overlaps from different areas and this is not a problem at all. This also means that Coach 8 is made up of a number of people who have been members of Coach 5 for the last couple of years. Three staff members from Coach 5 have moved to Coach 8: Richard Charnock is leading Coach 8 with Jayne Eccles and Kathy Charnock supporting him as staff members.

Both Richard and I believe that taking two coaches from Lancashire is the best way forward for everybody as it enables us to take more young people to Lourdes. because of the overlap with members and staff, and the fact that we come from the same area, we will be working closely with Coach 8 both in the preparation and whilst we are out in Lourdes. We intend one of the preparation meetings to be a joint one with Coach 8. A particular coach company is providing the two coaches and they will be travelling to Lourdes in convoy. Also the two hotels in Lourdes are very close to each other.