Lee & Stort Recorder Spring 2016

Spring 2016

Destination Stortford Bishop’s Stortford, like many towns, has for a number of years organised an annual Carnival.  As a Town & District Councillor & Committee member of Destination Stortford, and Chairman of Bishop’s Stortford Civic Federation, I promoted the idea of boats coming back to this year’s Carnival, as there used to be a Bishop’s Stortford Boat Festival years ago. If successful this may be the kick start to revive the old Festival, and as it is only two weeks before the Ware Festival, folk may be cruising this way anyway. There is, however, fairly limited space for boats in this area. So if you are considering coming to the Carnival by boat please book your mooring at: www.stortfordcarnivalmooring@btinternet.com, or call 01279-843358 to check availability.

Destination Stortford, born out of Stort Waterways Partnership, was set up a few years ago with the aim of developing the River as a place of leisure and activity for all. Bishop’s Stortford Town Council were involved from the beginning, but other interested parties soon joined which now include Canal and Rivers Trust, Inland Waterways Lee and Stort Branch, Wetherspoons, The Environment Agency, East Herts District Council, Lee & Stort Cruises, and Herts Highways.

Bishop’s Stortford Civic Federation supports Destination Stortford whose work complements not only the Sworders Field Master Plan, but wider aspirations including Neighbourhood Plan 2, tourism, tow path walks, signage and information boards.

Destination Stortford identified the need to raise £24K to get some projects started and on the basis of a match funding agreement the Environment Agency has committed £12K and the IWA have contributed £2K. A further £1K has been pledged, so they need to raise £9K to complete the match funding requirement. Canal and Rivers Trust already contribute by managing the waterways, visitor moorings, locks etc. and East Herts District Council have also indicated an interest in contributing and are considering quantum.

Bishop’s Stortford Civic Federation supports Destination Stortford as a high profile project looking to develop benefits of economic development but also leisure and recreation for both the residents of, and visitors to, Bishop’s Stortford.

For more information about the carnival visit the website www.bishopsstortford.org, Town Council, Carnival.

George Cutting.

Amazing Efforts of Flood Volunteers Praised As Clean-Up Passes 3,000 Hour Milestone Volunteers have been praised for the vital role they played in helping canals in the North recover from the impact of the Boxing Day floods.

Since Christmas the Canal & River Trust, which cares for 2,000 miles of canals and rivers, has seen volunteers, aged from 8 to 80, give over 3,000 hours to repair towpaths, rebuild walls, clean up mud and clear rubbish and other debris from the Aire & Calder Navigation, Rochdale Canal and Calder & Hebble Navigation.

The figure is the equivalent of one person working eight hours a day for a full working year and it is estimated that the volunteers’ efforts have been worth more than £40,000, though the

benefit in helping to reopen stretches of towpath and canal is incalculable.

Highlights include: · Volunteers on the Rochdale Canal moved over 200 tonnes of stone to reopen 9km of towpath between Hebden Bridge and Sowerby Bridge. · 100 volunteers aged from 8 to 80 helped clear the towpath and rebuild a dry stone wall at Elland. · An allotment group in Todmorden shored up a canal bank with sandbags to stop water loss. · Volunteers from Sanderson Weatherall property agents cleared up a section of the Aire & Calder Navigation in the heart of Leeds.

David Baldacchino, waterway manager for the Canal & River Trust said; “This is a real milestone and local people should be rightly proud. We’ve been blown away by the role that volunteers have played in helping to get parts of the region’s waterways back on their feet. We’ve seen people from far and wide wanting to play their part, whether that’s rolling their sleeves up and helping with the clean-up or supporting our fundraising appeal.

“The efforts of the volunteers have not only reopened sections of canal but also enabled our teams to get on with the important task of planning the bigger repair jobs. The response, in very difficult conditions, has been incredible, but there’s still much to do so we’ll be organising more volunteering opportunities in the coming weeks and months.”

Local people have been involved from the outset, helping to make things safe, and putting up signs warning people of damaged and closed towpaths. Since then the focus has turned to clearing up the devastation left behind by the floods.

Around 100 people volunteered at Elland to clear mud from the towpath, create a temporary pathway around Park Nook Lock and rebuild a dry stone wall that had been destroyed. The group included junior soldiers from Harrogate Army Foundation College who pumped mud off the towpath as part of their Duke of Edinburgh Award.

On the Rochdale Canal local people have been out on the canal several times a week and have moved over 200 tonnes of stone and other materials – the weight of 15 double decker buses – to fill holes and long scours that were left by flood waters along the popular towpath through Sowerby Bridge, Hebden Bridge and Todmorden. As a result of their hard work around 9km of towpath has been reopened between Hebden Bridge and Sowerby Bridge.

During the past few weeks, volunteers from Sanderson Weatherall, property agents in Manchester, showed support for their neighbours in Leeds by giving their time to help clear up a section of the Aire & Calder Navigation in the heart of the city.

The efforts have been supported by a wide range of organisations including local branches of Lloyds Bank and Halifax Bank, Shire Cruisers, the Calder Navigation Society, Yorkshire Building Society, Calderdale Council and Todmorden Council.

The Trust has also launched an appeal to help rebuild canals in the heart of flood-hit communities such as those along the Calder & Hebble Navigation. The Boxing Day floods destroyed homes and businesses, damaged historic canals and washed away much loved stretches of towpath. The Trust’s appeal will help rebuild and reopen historic waterways helping waterside communities, where life has been turned upside down, to recover.

To find out more about the appeal please visit: canalrivertrust.org.uk/donate/flood-appeal/.

…and on a personal note, to the crew of nb ‘Kingfisher’, the 14th Walthamstow Scouts would like to offer you their thanks and appreciation for supporting their ‘Akela’, and allowing her to travel a short way with you on the River Lee. Only the crew of the Relevant ‘Kingfisher’ will know who they are, and I hope they are in a position to receive this Newsletter.

To understand this phrase, we need to enter the arcane world of nautical terminology. Sheets aren’t sails as landlubbers might expect, but ropes. These are fixed to the lower corners of the sails to holds them in place. If three sails are loose and blowing about in the wind, the sails will flap and the boat will lurch like a drunken sailor.

The phrase is these days more often given as ‘three sheets to the wind,’ rather than the original ‘three sheets in the wind.’

Sailors around the world in the 1820s had a sliding scale of drunkenness: three sheets to the wind was the falling over stage; whereas two sheets to the wind, tipsy and just one sheet to the wind, or ‘a sheet in the wind’s eye.’

From The Region Spring is coming and the waterways are once again alive with the sounds of birds, and boats moving along them. I hope you are able to get out and join us at some of the waterway events around London this year. In May, we have Cavalcade, then the Ware Festival and a trip round the Bow Back Rivers, sorry the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, in July.

I thought this month I would write about some of the work of the National Navigation Committee, sometimes referred to as Nav-com, and the campaigning they do. Perhaps the most important campaign we have run since that which resulted in the formation of Canal and River Trust (CRT), is that to have the Environment Agency (EA) Navigations transferred to CRT. When I have been out and about some people have questioned the need for this campaign as, at present, there is little sign of a problem except for a back log of dredging. They also point out that the EA staff is doing a very good job keeping their navigations working. These are

very good points with which I agree totally. But under the surface all is not well.

On the Thames the EA recently lost a case which means they cannot charge a licence fee for boats that are kept in connected marinas.

They can only charge for boats when they are on the river. I understand that they intend to appeal, but in the meantime this is another blow to their already depleted budget. In East Anglia all work has stopped on the Fenland link. In my opinion we have been lucky so far, when there is a major failure such as a lock, EA will struggle to find the money to repair it, and this will result in a protracted closure or even an attempt to abandon the navigation. Our campaign is proactive trying to prevent the worst happening and it will be a good foundation when we have to react to a major crisis in the future.

Another campaign we have been running is to look at the condition of winding points across the canal network. We have produced a ‘standard’ design for a winding hole to be used by restoration groups or where new ones are needed. We have also carried out a survey of the condition of winding points across the country. With Ray Gill, the Middlesex Branch planning officer, I recently met London CRT to discuss the situation in our area. We quickly established that there was not a definitive list of official winding points in the London Region. IWA and CRT sat down together to produce a list, omitting the Bow Back waters as these are still under the control of the Olympic Legacy Organisation. We used a number of sources and where three or four of them agreed the winding point, it was added to the list. Secondly where two sources agreed, and IWA and CRT felt a turning point would be useful at that point, it was added, and finally. where there were several turning points in a short pound, or close together on a longer pound, we chose the best/safest one to be the official Winding Point. We hope to be able to publish this list in the near future so that both organisations can monitor the condition and ensure that these winding points remain available in the future.

If you would like to know more about national campaigns, or think you would like to get more involved, please get in touch.

Paul Strudwick, Chair Person, London Region.

Twitter: paul @greenboater.

Wendover Arm Trust 2016 Grand Draw

Hello to all the Lee & Stort IWA recipients. Two books of Grand Draw tickets are again enclosed with your magazine, so that you can take the opportunity not only to win some of the prizes, but also support the Wendover Arm Trust in their efforts to restore the canal. The Wendover Arm Trust Grand Draw raises further funds for continuing the restoration of the canal, which feeds water from Wendover to the summit level of the Grand Union canal at Bulbourne. The restoration is carried out by a dedicated team of volunteers, now working from Drayton Beauchamp towards Little Tring.

Let me update you all a bit from last year when you were shown the last section of the canal that was re-watered. Nature has taken her hand

What a difference a month makes!

Views from bridge 4a in March and April - in water for the first time in 110 years!

and the seeded banks are now green with grass and other sundry plants.

The mechanical plant has moved operations towards Whitehouses, where CRT and their contractors are carrying out works on the pipework and sluice, to direct the ‘excess’ water (! at some future time following further re-watering!) to the reservoir. The volunteers however are busy laying the concrete pipe capping towards bridge 4 and shifting vast amounts of spoil for the profiling of the canal.

In November 2015, the CRT, together with WAT prepared and submitted an application to the Heritage Lottery Fund for a grant to use a contractor to speed the restoration along. The result of the application should be known shortly.

The prizes include the first prize of a one week Boating Holiday, sponsored by Wyvern Shipping of Leighton Buzzard; second prize of a Day Boat hire, sponsored by Lee Valley Boat Centre; third prize of a Virgin Experience Day - a visit to the Shard; a fourth prize of £100 cash; plus many others.

Please sell these two books of tickets, returning the counterfoils and a cheque to the Promoter. If you can sell more tickets to your friends or at your workplace, please call Michael Wright on 01727-860137, e-mail: draw@wendoverarmtrust.co.uk The Draw will take place on Sunday 4th September 2016.

Thank you in anticipation of your essential support.

Michael Wright – Promoter.

Notes From Your Chairman Dear friends, well the winter is over, Spring has sprung and Summer is on the horizon. Let's hope it's a great 2016. I am going to begin with our two successful campaigns that we promised to progress last year, and have delivered this year.

Ware Common Wharf This has now been returned to full public visitor mooring status, following a long and challenging process to prove the land was common land, available for use by the general public. We have had the long stay mooring vessel removed; the caravan removed; the site cleared and tidied up, and finally a new mooring sign with the joint logos of IWA, Ware Town Council and CRT thereon.

IWA have funded this sign.

New Mooring Timbers in Ware People will recall the dangerous bolts that protruded from the bank side in Ware, and as a result we have successfully lobbied and worked in partnership with CRT to replace the entire mooring edge planks in Ware, from Town Bridge to Town Quay. The solid oak timbers installed are of great quality and well-fitted, a credit to our friends in CRT. IWA have part funded this campaign.

Continuous Mooring issues IWA supports rights of boaters to continuously cruise without a home mooring but in recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of people living on boats without a home mooring, and

remaining in small geographical area. IWA is asking for clear rules coupled with enforcement action. For London Region, IWA have put forward solutions which CRT have begun to adopt.

This includes: More affordable residential moorings, these include increase in off line moorings, online community moorings with no more than ten boats, additional fee, no resale value, for us they are north of Enfield lock offside, Improved signage at visitor moorings – stay & penalty.

Enforcement action.

Reduction in overall number of such boats in London area.

Over 5,000 boats without a home mooring have had their movement patterns reviewed prior to licence renewal and, where there were concerns, licences for shorter durations (three or six months) were offered to enable the customer to establish a more acceptable range of movement. From 1st May 2016, as originally planned, the Trust will no longer offer three month restricted licences to boaters who have not been meeting the terms of their ‘continuous cruiser’ licence.

Canal & River Trust, said: “Our emphasis on better communication, alongside a defined period in which to resolve problem cruising patterns, seems to be having a positive effect – local feedback on the Lee and Stort seems to support that, with fewer boats permanently moored, being sighted on our area.

Boats without a home mooring that are not moving in line with our guidance, despite all the communication they have received, will no longer be offered a licence of any duration. We are continuing our programme of education and communication, which I believe is essential in meeting the needs of both boaters and the Trust, to ensure everyone can enjoy our canals and rivers”.

Our thanks go to the Regional Chairman for London, Paul Strudwick who has been pivotal in developing the proposals and solutions, to an issue that affects us all.

Our Branch membership is as follows. We have 355 members, 260 memberships. Welcome to all our new members. We have remained relatively stable with our membership figures seeing a very slight increase in our Branch membership of just 3 last year.

In the last few months we have made a donation to CRT of £750 to help with the restoration project for Carpenters Road lock.

Campaign for CRT to take responsibility for EA navigations IWA is campaigning for the transfer of 600 miles of EA navigations, to CRT with an appropriate funding package to prevent continuing deterioration. Please support the campaign by writing to your MP within our branch area.

CRT has a funding package for 15 years, but EA navigations do not have this security. They have actually seen budget reductions, with further cuts to its budget expected. An opportunity to transfer the waterways was lost in 2013, when the Government postponed the proposal.

IWA is asking this fairly new Government to reconsider. EA rivers include the Thames, Medway, Great Ouse, Nene. Last month it was announced that a joint working group will be established to explore the options for running EA navigations in the future.

Ware Boat Festival 2015 & 2016 Last year’s event was a great success. With 75 boats in attendance, improved harbour master arrangements, superb BBQ, a good turn-out for the parade, boat handling and quiz - alongside great weather, our annual Branch festival was a hit. An increase in volunteer support made things run smoothly and we would ask you all to support us for our next festival on 1st, 2nd and 3rd July. We have had two committee meetings to de-brief last year, made some changes to improve and already have over 30 boats booked in for this year.

Ware Visitor Welcome Station – volunteers needed This spring CRT are working with Lee Valley Parks to open a new visitor information point by the River Lee in Ware. CRT are looking for volunteers to help open up the information point at weekends throughout the summer months. You’ll be welcoming visitors to the towpath and river, answering questions, providing information on the local area, and the Lee Valley, and helping with the general upkeep of the towpath through Ware.

If you like talking to people, are enthusiastic about Ware and the Lee Valley area, and are able to volunteer two or more days per month at the weekend, this could be perfect for you. To find out more please contact Debbie Vidler, 07825 099167.

Cavalcade 2016 Our Branch was well represented at Little Venice last year and that appears to be the same for next month, with a few of us from Lee and Stort

Branch now performing official duties to support this fantastic start of season boating event. We look forward to seeing many of you again this year during the early May bank holiday weekend.

Bishop’s Stortford Festival we are working with new Stort Waterways Partnership to improve navigation and amenities in Stortford and would ask members to support their one day festival on Saturday 18 th June. It has not passed the committee by that much of our focus has been on the River Lee, particularly Ware, and so we will use this festival at the head of the Stort to see if we could increase our future visibility on the River Stort.

CRT Consultation on boating CRT will be asking around a third of their licence holders for their opinions on a range of topics including: how boaters use Trust’s waterways and what their experience of them is like; the services provided for boaters such as moorings, facilities and the licence renewal process; the ways they would like to receive information; and their views on how well they feel the Trust is caring for the waterways. Using the feedback from their boaters, CRT will identify local examples of what is working well and what needs to be improved upon, so lessons can be learnt from best practice and improvements can be prioritised.

Winding-Hole survey IWA, supported by CRT have undertaken a London-wide review of winding hole availability. They used Nicholsons, geo maps, historic data and local knowledge. This threw up many inconsistencies, so there will be a new official list based on the following: If 3 or 4 of the data sources agreed, it was accepted as a winding hole.

Where 2 sources agreed and IWA/CRT thought it would be useful then it was accepted.

Where there were several points close together in a short space, the best/safest was chosen.

This then produced an ‘agreed list’ for London Region.

For our Branch, there is an issue with the winding hole at head of river Lee as not owned by CRT. There is a right of navigation above CRT limit, but we don't have an identified responsible authority to maintain it.

These official winding holes will now all be visited, using a boat to assess usability and list will then be circulated.

My personal thanks go to all the committee who have again met on a number of occasions throughout the year to keep the business of the Branch moving along. To Mike our secretary who has stepped up to the many and varied challenges the role brings with it, to Banny for organising our social events, to Mon for newsletter support and Terry and Tony for their great efforts with Ware festival, and to Mike Newman who did such a superb job as our new harbourmaster at Ware, that we have now secured his services on the Committee. Mike is doing some great work for Ware this year to brighten up the Town Quay. But we mustn’t forget our wonderful Chairman, who does so much behind the scenes, that most of us know nothing about!

Have a great summer, Craig.

At our Branch AGM back in March, of our 300 or so Branch members, only 16 of them turned up.

At our recent monthly get together, only 1 current member, plus 1 new person turned up.

What’s happened to all our members?

Where are you?

Once upon a time our meeting room - the restaurant at the New Inn - was full to capacity. Very sad.

Love me when I least deserve it, Because that’s when I really need it.

- Swedish proverb

Springfield Marina is currently undergoing a major refurb. Smart new buildings are being erected, and there is shortly to be a chandlery in the room which has for a number of years housed the Spring Lea Cruising Club.

What then, is going to happen to the cruising club?

There are plans for transferring the club venue to the former Sea Scout Hut. These premises will remain unlicensed.

Things will stay as they are until June, after which there seem to be no further details.

Staveley Town Lock - A Race Against Time

Chesterfield Canal Trust is hosting the IWA National Trailboat Festival at Staveley Town Basin on 28th and 29th May 2016, but will Staveley Town Lock be completed and operating in time for the Festival? The

Staveley Town Lock

Chesterfield Canal Trust’s volunteer work party is striving valiantly to get everything completed, but bad weather and mechanical problems are making it really difficult. Work on the lock itself is almost complete. Only the coping stones and the lock gates need to be fitted. The gates have already been made by Hargreaves and are in their works in Halifax. The main problem is completing the 300 metres of canal below the lock, known as Hartington Harbour. This area has been, at best, ankle deep in mud and at worst totally flooded since November. The Trust’s ageing excavator,

known as Denis, has developed frequent mechanical problems.

JCB/TCHarrison has been magnificent in lending support to the Trust in helping to fix these breakdowns. Most of the visible work has been done by volunteers from the Trust, with occasional help from the volunteers from WRG. The bridge at the end of the lock, the bywash and the spill weir base were done by contractors.

It is hoped that all the work will be done before the Festival and that boats will be able to use the lock, turn in Hartington Harbour and come out again. The Festival will run from 10 am. to 5 pm on both days and will include boat rides, canoeing, children’s rides, plenty of entertainment, dozens of stalls plus food and drink including a real ale bar run by Brampton Brewery.

Enjoy Life – It has an Expiry Date!

Lee Valley Marina South Street, Stanstead Abbotts, Hertfordshire, SG12 8AL. Phone: 01920 870 499 e-mail: stanstead@leevalleypark.org.uk You will find us just 500 metres from St Margaret’s main line station

Committee Members Chairman Craig Haslam h: m: 07956 848 025 e: boatyboy96@hotmail.com Secretary, Membership Secretary Mike Jones h: 01992 584 310 m: 07976 517 749 e: mike.jones10@ntlworld.com

Treasurer Carole Beeton h: 01992 468 435 m: 07905 701 948 e: robandcarole@msn.com

Joint Events Officers Banny Banyard Terry Stembridge h: 01279 771 552 h: 01992 575 702 m: 07860 669 279 m: 07709 205 498 e: banny@tesco.net e: terrystembridge32@btinternet.com Magazine Editor Monica Hawes h: m: 07943 169 800 e:monicaforboats@hotmail.com

Tony Plunkett h: m: 07944 678 228 e: tplunkett@hotmail.co.uk

Mike Newman h: m: 07708 580 495 e: mike.newman2@btinternet.com The IWA may not agree with opinions expressed in this newsletter, but encourages publication as a matter of interest. Nothing printed may be construed as policy, or an official announcement unless otherwise stated.

IWA accepts no liability for any matter in this newsletter. Registered Charity No212342