Thursday 14 April
Today's news from the web
- B&MK Waterway short-listed for National Waterways Renaissance Awards waterscape.com
The proposed Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterway has been shortlisted for this year's National Waterways Renaissance Awards. The award results will be announced at a ceremony in Birmingham on Wednesday 25 May. Originally proposed almost 200 years ago, the dream of the Bedford & Milton Keynes link was revived in the 1990s and remains alive, even in these straitened times. The ambitious scheme would provide a broadbeam link between the Grand Union Canal and the River Great Ouse at Bedford (& thus the Fens). ...
- New West Midlands and North West Local Partnership Boards seek members waterscape.com
After appointing chairmen last week, the two latest trial Local Waterway Partnership Boards - North West and West Midlands - are now on the hunt for suitable members to help influence and advise the management of the canals and rivers in their local area. These trial Partnerships will work with local waterway managers until the new waterways charity becomes fully operational in 2012. The Waterways Trust is looking recruit at least seven members to each of these Partnerships. Members of the Partnership will have a range of knowledge, skills and experience relevant to the development of waterways for the widest public benefit. Relevant interests and expertise will include:...
- Paddleboarder to make 3-day Union Canal journey news.scotsman.com
Paddleboarder Cathy King is planning to travel all the way from Glasgow to Edinburgh in an epic fundraising trip. Ms King, 40, hopes to raise hundreds of pounds for international healthcare charity Merlin in the three-day paddle, travelling on her stand-up paddleboard. She will travel at a pace of around 3mph throughout the 69-mile trip, with boyfriend Patrick Winterton riding alongside on his bike....
Wednesday 13 April
£110 million to improve water and wildlife
The government is to make £110 million available to improve the environmental condition of ‘lakes, streams and other water bodies’, the Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman has announced.
Andrew Denny | 3.46pm
Today's news from the web
- Spelman pledges £110m to revive unhealthy waterways bbc.co.uk
Otters and salmon will benefit from a £110m boost in spending on England's lakes, rivers and streams, the government has said. Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said the funds would revive "lifeless" bodies of water, allowing wildlife to flourish by tackling invasive weeds....
Tuesday 12 April
Waterscape launches 'Reservoir Watch'
British Waterways has launched a 'Reservoir Watch' on its website. The organisation's Hydrology department, which keeps an eye on water levels, is making the information publicly available so that boaters can be better aware of when they need to share locks, husband water supplies and generally ensure that the winter's rain can be eked out through the hot summer.
Andrew Denny | 10.47am
Today's news from the web
- Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation half-marathon event cancelled maldonandburnhamstandard.co.uk
A half-marathon event scheduled for next month has been cancelled. The Chelmer Canal Trust had planned to stage the event on the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation towpath on May 8. However, due to the lack of volunteer marshals, it has had to be shelved. Neil Frost, Chelmer Canal Trust trustee, said: "We very much regret having to take the decision to cancel the event. A lot of hard work had been put into the planning by several people, two of them not even connected with the trust....
Monday 11 April
Free smoke alarm for Harecastle Tunnel boaters
Andrew Denny | 2.58pm
Friday 8 April
Today's news from the web
- Long Awaited Canal To Open Paris Freight To The Sea handyshippingguide.com
Battle lines are being drawn up by those in the rail freight sector after this week’s announcement that the much mooted plan for a canal linking Paris to the North Sea ports via the Belgian system of waterways is to proceed. With an estimated cost of €4.5 billion the canal is being touted as a major carbon saver aiming to take half a million trucks off the roads of France, in truth the 4,000 tonne barges are likely to affect the track borne logistics of the country to a far greater degree....
- Friends ignore advice from 999 operator to save the life of man drowning in icy cold canal dailymail.co.uk
Two friends who were walking home along a canal after a night out saved the life of a drowning man despite orders by ambulance officers not to go into the freezing water. Joshn Felvus, 20, and Liam Jempson, 19, spotted the man struggling in the waterway close to Bristol city centre. They dialled 999 and were told by the operator not to go into the freezing 8ft deep water because it would breach their safety guidelines....
Thursday 7 April
Forth & Clyde and Union Canals get cruiseway status
The Scottish Government has officially upgraded the Forth & Clyde and Union canals to 'cruiseways'. The move, welcomed by BW Scotland, follows the similar reclassification by Defra recently of the Kennet & Avon Canal. And like the change in the latter’s status, it is more of an open public commitment to maintain the canal fully as it is now rather than a plan to increase its maintenance.
After the Forth & Clyde and Union canals were reopened through the £83.5m Lottery funded Millennium Link Project a decade ago, they have effectively been maintained as cruising waterways anyway, and BW claim they have seen an increasing number of boaters each year. However, their official status was still 'remainder waterways', and BW Scotland weren't officially obliged to maintain them at the current level. That's now changed, and the new classification gives them important statutory protections that should prevent them slipping back into dereliction.
Last September the tenth anniversary of the reopening of the Union Canal was celebrated with a 60-strong flotilla cruising from Glasgow to Edinburgh; an estimated 15,000 people came to watch. This coming September will see an even larger event celebrating a decade since the Forth & Clyde reopened, and next year there are plans to celebrate the opening of the Falkirk Wheel – now one of Scotland’s biggest tourist attractions - and the completion of the full Millennium Link .
"After 40 years of strenuously campaigning for the
reopening of the Lowland canals, the reclassification is a great foundation on
which to build and protect these wonderful national assets for future
generations to enjoy", said Ronnie Rusack MBE, Chairman of Seagull Trust Cruises and one of Scotland’s longest-serving waterways restoration figures.
The 10th Anniversary flotilla at Linlithgow Basin for the opening of the Union Canal
Andrew Denny | 12.24pm
Today's news from the web
- Dudley Tunnel gets Red Wheel award expressandstar.com
Dudley Canal Tunnel has been awarded a Red Wheel plaque by the Transport Trust in recognition of its status as a “unique complex of tunnels developed since 1778 for limestone and coal mining, for through navigation and increasingly for tourism.” The Transport Trust aims to raise awareness and appreciation of Britain’s transport heritage. Its website carries full details of more than 800 important locations throughout the country and across all modes of transport – from Roman roads to seaplane bases. ...
- Foxton Locks awarded Red Wheel plaque lutterworthmail.co.uk
Foxton Locks are celebrating after receiving a top award from the Transport Trust. The popular tourist attraction was given a Red Wheel plaque from the trust in recognition of the historical interest of the well known landmark. Richard Everard, vice lord leieutenant for Leicestershire presented the award to Foxton Locks outside the waterway’s museum on Monday. The Red Wheel scheme is a programme, much like English Heritage’s Blue Plaques, that commemorates transport sites of historical interest. ...
- Thousand-strong Royal River Pageant planned for Diamond Jubilee thamesdiamondjubileepageant.org
What is expected to be the largest inland waterways spectacle ever seen in Britain is being organised on the Thames on 3rd June next year, as part of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations.To be called ‘The Royal River Pageant’, it will be a huge flotilla involving one thousand boats and stretching from Putney to Tower Bridge and beyond. Almost all types of river and canal craft – rowed and motorised, historic and modern, British and Commonwealth – will be invited to join.The organisers say they expect up to a million people will line the banks of the Thames to witness the event, in what is likely to be the last major waterways event before the Olympic Games.All boats wishing to take part will need to be registered in advance on the official Royal River Pageant website, www.thamesdiamondjubileepageant.org....
Wednesday 6 April
Fradley Junction BW shop closing
The official British Waterways information centre and gift shop at Fradley Junction is closing at the end of April ‘for economic reasons’. BW said it planned to lease out the premises, but would not comment further.
Andrew Denny | 3.31pm | add a comment
Today's news from the web
- Caen Hill lock gates turned into a bullring at Glastonbury bbc.co.uk
Old lock gates removed from the Kennet & Avon Canal are being turned into a bullring for this year's Glastonbury. Gates from the Caen Hill Flight of Locks near Devizes are being used to create a mock "Campo Pequeno". The "Portuguese Bullring" will be created using 70 of the 12 ft (3.6m) high gates "set up on end" in a circle. The new 200-seat arena will host mock bullfights with an artificial bull, as well as offer an alternative temporary venue at the festival....
- Brand new French Sein-Nord 'mega-canal' gets go-ahead independent.co.uk
France yesterday launched the most ambitious engineering project in Western Europe since the Channel tunnel, a scheme to link Paris to the North Sea by a canal as wide as a football pitch. The €4.5bn (£3.9bn) project, first mooted 20 years ago, will divert up to 500,000 lorries a year from the roads of northern France. When completed in 2020, it will allow "mega-barges" of 4,000 tonnes to sail from the mouth of the Seine, via the Paris suburbs, to the Netherlands and Germany.... - Hungry fish are given their marching orders gazetteandherald.co.uk
Half a tonne of fish have been removed from the Caen Hill flight of locks on the Kennet and Avon Canal. The fish, which included large carp and pike, were netted and relocated along the canal while a proportion were taken to Toddbrook Reservoir in the Peak District. The fish were removed because British Waterways was concerned at the amount of younger fish and wildlife being eaten....
- Chairs appointed to trial Local Waterway Partnerships waterscape.com
Chairmen have been appointed to the two new trial Local Waterway Partnerships which will advise and influence the management of canals and rivers in the West Midlands and North West. These trial Partnerships, alongside a third trial already underway on the Kennet & Avon Canal, will work with local waterway managers until the new waterways charity becomes fully operational in 2012.
Peter Mathews CMG has been appointed to be the chair of the trial West Midlands Partnership. He is already chairman of the Black Country Consortium, which works to coordinate regeneration in the Black Country area of the West Midlands, and is chairman and managing director of Black Country Metals.Professor Steven Broomhead, professor of entrepreneurial education at Liverpool Hope University, is to be the chairman of the trial North West Partnership. He previously spent eight years as chief executive at Northwest Regional Development Agency, prior to which he was chief executive at Warrington Borough Council....
Tuesday 5 April
Today's news from the web
- MK's Record Canal Clean-up waterways.org.uk
Over 12 tons of rubbish was recovered from the 10 miles of the Grand Union Canal running through Milton Keynes over the weekend 1st -3rd April by the Milton Keynes Branch of the Inland Waterways Association (IWA MK Branch), working in partnership with British Waterways (BW) and the Wyvern Shipping Co Ltd (WSC). This biggest haul ever from the twice-yearly cleanups organised by the IWA MK Branch included two telescopic sighted rifles, a blown safe, 22 shopping trolleys, 38 bicycles, a sunken metal dinghy, 9 mattresses, wheels, tyres, scaffold poles, TVs, fridges , a motor cycle and so on - you name it we found it in the canal by grappling from the back of the towed big collecting workboat and the bank. Then there were some 30 black sacks we filled from rubbish collected from the towpath and adjacent hedgerow between Fenny Stratford and Wolverton. ...
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