6 NEWS
IN BRIEF
Royal honour
THE Kennet & Avon Canal Trust (KACT) has received the prestigious Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, the highest recognition for volunteer groups in the UK. Having celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, KACT received the accolade for its leadership of the restoration of the canal and buildings over the past half century and for creating a landscape and amenity valued by the community. Its restoration work has included 85 derelict locks (including Caen Hill Flight), 172 pairs of gates, a leaking canal bed, crumbling aqueducts and two abandoned pumping stations – enabling The Queen to officially reopen the waterway in 1990.
Medway fines WARNING notices were
issued to 125 River Medway boaters across the 2012 season according to the Environment Agency. Of these, 17 were subsequently prosecuted for keeping an unregistered boat on the Kent waterway. Each of the cases was taken before Maidstone Magistrates’ Court and together collected fines totalling £10,188. All boat owners entering the Medway Navigation are required to register with the Environment Agency and display a valid annual boat registration, which is similar to a road vehicle tax disc. All of the money generated through navigation fees is used for the river’s upkeep.
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Bedford-MK Waterway faces ‘tricky issues’ By Geoff Courtney
GRAHAM Mabbutt, chairman of the Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterway Trust, has spoken exclusively to Towpath Talk about the difficulties which the ambitious £200 million project has to overcome if it is to ever become a reality. He was speaking after a warning was sounded at the trust’s AGM at Newport Pagnell on May 19 for the need to be vigilant and flexible over developments at the Milton Keynes end of the project’s route, which were described as ‘tricky issues’ around the waterway’s ‘key delivery area’. The warning came from Paul Vann, secretary of the B&MK Waterway Consortium – a group that includes the three local authorities through which the 16-mile route will travel – and economic manager for growth at
Bedford Borough Council. Paul also told the AGM of other complexities in central Bedfordshire and Bedford, and said that while the fundamental tools were in place, there was a need for the consortium to be constantly vigilant, responsive, convincing, opportunistic and flexible. Expanding on Paul’s theme, Graham told Towpath Talk that difficulties had arisen because developers had requested a diversion of the waterway’s planned route on the edge of Milton Keynes, near the M1. It is in a development area known as Eagle Farm North and Eagle Farm South, where the waterway is planned to pass under the A421 on the south side of the motorway between junctions 13 and 14. The trust objected to part of the diversion at a planning inquiry held to consider the requested
Graham Mabbutt (left), who is in his last year as chairman of the Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterway Trust, with trust patron Sir Samuel Whitbread at Sir Samuel’s Bedfordshire estate.
PHOTO: B&MK WATERWAY TRUST
change, following which the inspector has circulated her conclusions to all interested parties, including the trust, consortium, and MK Council. “We have responded to the inspector’s conclusions, and a decision is expected in July,” said Graham. “A slight diversion to the planned route would be acceptable, and we are urging that the route then be safeguarded. There is no other alternative at this stage that would not dramatically affect our route. The problem is that developers do not like anything that takes land away from their development.” As the trust awaits a final decision on this crucial issue, another problem – albeit a rather less serious one – has arisen on the route nearer Bedford, where the waterway would pass close to Ridgmont railway station. Network Rail plans to electrify this line, which runs from Bedford to Bletchley, and currently there is just enough space for the waterway and towpath between the line and a large Amazon warehouse. The electrification project is due for completion by the spring of 2019. Graham added: “We will be looking to ensure that any work or new structures in relation to the electrification do not reduce the space for the waterway.” He also revealed that this is to be his last year as chairman of the trust. “I have enjoyed it immensely, but it has been very challenging, and the volume of work and the level of commitment it takes are also immense. However, the results make it worthwhile,” he said. A member of the trust since
Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterway Trust project officer Claire Gathard after a presentation of retirement gifts at the trust’s AGM in Newport Pagnell on May 19. Behind Claire is trust chairman Graham Mabbutt (applauding) and Milton Keynes mayor Coun Brian White.
PHOTO: B&MK WATERWAY TRUST
2006 and its chairman for the past two years, 71-year-old Graham will stand down at next year’s AGM. Claire Gathard, the trust’s project officer, who has also announced her retirement, was praised by Graham at the AGM for her “absolutely wonderful” support of the trust, its members and volunteers during her six years in the role. There was praise, too, from Milton Keynes mayor Coun Brian White for the enthusiasm of members who, he said, had kept the project alive “through all the difficult times”. Despite his warning of the need for constant vigilance, Paul Vann was another who struck a positive note, telling members: “Everyone is working really hard and we are making progress. Another year has passed, and next year there will be more progress.”
Otters could reduce mink numbers By Bob Clarke
AN ECOLOGIST claims that as a result of encouraging otters onto canals there is evidence that they will attack mink if they find them in their territory. And indications are that as soon as there is otter activity mink tend to leave the area, according to the Canal & River Trust ecologist Paul Wilkinson. Mr Wilkinson was commenting on the trust’s link-up with the National Sea Life Centre in Birmingham which is aiming to help increase the number of otters on canals in the West
Midlands and Black Country. A team of employees from the centre will work with ecologists to install otter holts and ramps. Volunteers will also install fish refuge areas to increase the number of fish in stretches were otters are known to live. DNA analysis of droppings will also enable estimates to be made of the number of otters on the waterways. Asked what the impact would be on fish stocks once otters were introduced, Mr Wilkinson said their territory could be as long as 40 miles so the effect on fish stocks would be negligible.
Make sure your boat TV is licensed TV LICENSING and the Residential Boat Owners’ Association (RBOA) have come together to raise awareness among boaters of TV licence rules. The initiative aims to inform boat dwellers about when a licence is needed and how they can become licensed to enjoy a year’s worth of ‘live’ TV. By law, boat residents who are watching or recording TV programmes at the same time as they are shown on TV, need to be licensed. This is true no matter what device is being watched, how the programmes are received, or whether the boat is cruising or moored. Claire Wotherspoon, spokesperson for TV Licensing, said: “An estimated 15,000 people in the UK live on a boat. It is important they understand how the law applies to them when it comes to watching or recording TV programmes. If they are found watching live TV on board without a valid licence, they might get a sinking feeling as they realise they are at risk of prosecution and a fine of up to £1000.” People can spread the cost of paying for a TV licence, with weekly, fortnightly or monthly cash payment plans available, plus direct debit options, which can be set up quickly and easily online. RBOA chairman Alan Wildman added: “The RBOA provides a wealth of information on our website and in members’ publications for residents, and would always recommend people get in touch for advice on the practicalities of living on a boat, or if they are unsure of their obligations.” For further details, visit www.tvlicensing.co.uk or call TV Licensing on 0300 790 6071.
The Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterway Trust was founded in 1995 with the long-term aim of linking the River Great Ouse at Kempston, near Bedford, with the Grand Union Canal at Milton Keynes, a project which Sir Samuel Whitbread, the trust’s patron, described in an interview with Towpath Talk last year as not a pipe dream, but a scheme he believed would come to fruition. Ironically, in view of the latest hurdle faced by the trust at Milton Keynes, Sir Samuel said at the time: “We have to convince developers that building housing beside a waterway is a plus. This is not a group of madmen building through the countryside.” Drew Marchant, a trust director, has also stressed the project’s advantages, saying it would provide a significant financial boost to the local economy.
CRT has no plans to issue ‘blue badges’ By Bob Clarke
THE Canal and River Trust (CRT) has announced that it has no plans to provide ‘blue badges’ for boaters with physical disabilities. This follows an approach to Towpath Talk by one such boater who said it was illegal to display a ‘blue badge’ on anything other than a motor vehicle and asked: “Surely a badge of some sort could be provided where proof of a disability is given?” CRT’s head of boating business, Sally Ash, commented: “I can assure (the boater) that he does not have to display a badge of any kind if he is using a mooring that has been coded as suitable for people with mobility issues. “The good spirit and commonsense of boaters means it is extremely rare that we get reports of people preventing boaters with mobility issues from mooring in an appropriate space.” However, a Towpath Talk correspondent reports that at some moorings where spaces for disabled boaters are clearly designated there have been occasions when able-bodied boaters have refused to move and make way for a boater with a physical disability because all other moorings have been occupied.