TRAILBOAT FESTIVALS

Due to cancellations during the Covid-19 pandemic, there are no National Trailboat Festivals planned until 2025. We would, therefore, like to encourage waterway restoration trusts, societies or councils that are engaged in restoring a waterway to apply to host a Trailboat Festival in 2024/25.

Trailboat Festivals are very useful for drawing attention locally and nationally to restoration or improvement projects. In addition to a greater awareness of the project, these events can draw local political attention to successful restorations and also provide a source of additional income. When people see others gathering and the tranquil movement of pleasure-boats – illuminated at night and decorated with bunting and flags – on even a small part of their previously disused canal, it gives a lot of pleasure. It adds considerably to the quality and tone of the locality – urban or rural. It leaves people wanting to see further improvement and attracts more supporters for the restoration project.

There is no set design for a Trailboat Festival as its very nature will depend upon the waterway being promoted. These events depend in part on the availability of volunteers, financial resources and the extent of support from local politicians and the community. We have members and supporters in all parts of the country, and can certainly ask those who are local to you if they are willing to help with preparation. A Waterway Recovery Group (WRG) team could be available if requested, depending on availability, to provide manual assistance in constructing, running and dismantling as they have people who have been putting on events for many years and may be available to give advice in person, over the phone or by email. We may also be able to free loan a two-ton trailer full of the sort of gear necessary to stage an event, although a 4×4 vehicle with a tow bar is required to collect it. Some marketing for the event can be carried out centrally as part of our programme of events which is advertised each year, and our website can also be used. You can apply to our Finance Committee for help with your early organising costs.

The format for applications is to submit a written request but the first step is to check that you have the basic facilities available. Please email the Trailboat Officer for a list of required facilities. As each event tends to be unique to its waterway and to its organising committee, all we need at the outset is an Outline Proposal of your Trailboat Festival Plan. We will send you advice on what this should cover and an example for guidance. To secure the approval and support of IWA, it is necessary for us to feel sure the event is likely to take place and that the event is planned properly. Organisers will need to plan several years ahead and have a suitable budget in place. For assistance with answering the questions in the application, just email iwa.trailboat.festivals@gmail.com. We are continuously looking for applicants for Trailboat Festivals up to four or five years in advance to allow plenty of advertising time.

Wendover Canal Trust Celebrates 25th Anniversary

On Tuesday 1st November 2022, Wendover Canal Trust staged its biggest community engagement event with more than 100 guests from 85 different organisations, to mark the 25th anniversary of work starting on restoration of the Wendover Canal. The occasion also enabled the trust to provide an update on its activities, hold a dialogue with representatives from local organisations and thank its current supporters.

IWA has supported the project throughout those 25 years, both nationally and through IWA Chiltern Branch, while IWA’s Restoration Hub has recently provided a significant amount of support. Our Technical Support Officer, Mikk Bradley, worked with the Canal & River Trust over drawings and designs for Whitehouses sluice structure. He also prepared detailed drawings for the repairs to the foundations of the swing-bridge, including stop plank design, the Narrows structure and towpath strengthening wall. Mikk has also taken on an active role in training WCT volunteers in levelling. The WCT Environment Group was trained by IWA’s former Volunteer Coordinator Alex Melson on Biodiversity Net Gain, who led a training afternoon walking along the Wendover Canal and highlighting many aspects of value to the wildlife at Whitehouses Pocket Park.

At the event in Your Café in the Park in Aston Clinton, WCT Chair Clive Johnson said the canal was almost impenetrable when the decision was taken to restore it and the first task was to clear the hawthorn scrub. He said that volunteer construction started in 1997 and that “our wonderful volunteers have been doing heavy construction work for 25 years – and we are all unpaid”.

He added, “Our plan is that, by the end of 2025, we will complete our lining of the section which has always leaked near Tring, then we will restore the water level all the way to Wendover for boats to Buckland, and eventually Wendover. None of this would have been possible without the funders of the restoration and the towpath upgrade.”

The canal and its towpath were becoming a green corridor, he said, “accessible to us all to boost our well-being, with increased biodiversity”. Ros Daniels (CRT Director for London & South East) proposed a celebratory toast and other distinguished guests included Commodore Tim Hennessey, RN DL, Deputy Lieutenant of Hertfordshire, Wing Commander Anna Toothill, Deputy Station Commander, RAF Halton and Councillor Christopher Townsend, Mayor of Tring.

Over the years, local Waterway Recovery Group volunteers have got stuck in at the trust’s regular work parties and, in summer 2022, two WRG Canal Camps were held on the Wendover Canal. WRG regional groups have held weekend digs on site, two digs so far in 2022. IWA’s Restoration Hub will continue to support this project and run camps there in 2023 and beyond.

Water Transfer Schemes Offer Possibilities For Waterway Restoration And Navigation

The EA’s National Framework for Water Resources consists of five regional groups, bringing together the water companies that operate in each of England’s regions with key water users and other stakeholders. All five regions are currently consulting on their Dra Regional Water Resources Plans. Many of the water transfer schemes (to move water around the country and share resources more e ectively) have implications for navigation and for restoration projects.

Open-water transfer has the potential to be cheaper, improve biodiversi and wildlife corridors, as well as provide ameni value in the form of boating links, and enhanced walking and cycling access to the countryside with associated health benefits.

It also opens up the possibili of using waterborne eight to deliver materials and remove spoil om these large in astructure projects.

Several of the regional water resource networks are exploring options which could benefit navigation.

Water Resources East (WRE) is planning two new reservoirs as part of its Water Resources Plan. The proposed Fenland Reservoir would be built near the town of Cha eris in Cambridgeshire. If Anglian Water opt for open-water supply to this, it could provide a link to the Middle Level om the Great Ouse. The historically important Welches Dam Lock, currently closed to navigation, could be reopened (or a new lock built parallel to it). IWA has been campaigning for the reopening of this lock since it closed. Not only would the tidal crossing be made unnecessary, but a new cruising ring created.

The second proposed reservoir would be in South Lincolnshire and WRE is working with the Stamford Canal Socie to understand the feasibili of restoring the Stamford Canal to help transfer water as part of the Boston to Peterborough wetland corridor.

Canalway Cavalcade

IWA’s Canalway Cavalcade will return to London’s Li le Venice for a 40th anniversary celebration between 29th April and 1st May 2023. The event is held annually over the three days of the early May Day Bank Holiday and is a vibrant waterways celebration. London’s Li le Venice will be transformed with hundreds of colourful boats, live music, re eshment stands, cra stalls and family activities!

Boat bookings are now open for this unique festival and you can download an application form om our website. The commi ee that organises the event is also seeking new members and volunteers so please do consider joining the fantastic team behind one of the most successful and besta ended inland waterways events in the country.

Current vacancies include:

• Marketing & Social Media Assistant

• Secretary

• Site & Services Assistant

• Treasurer

Additionally, WRE is working with the Environment Agency and the Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterway Park to explore the water and flood risk benefits of linking the Grand Union Canal and the Great Ouse.

Water Resources West and Water Resources South East are also developing plans for water transfers that would use existing assets such as canals to move water within and beyond regions. Their consultations found these were particularly favoured as they are sustainable and require less investment.

The Grand Union Canal transfer would use the existing canal in astructure to transfer water om the Midlands to areas likely to experience water shortages in the South East. The scheme plans to use a treated wastewater discharge at Minworth as the resilient source of water to supply this canal transfer via a pipeline.

The proposed Severn-Thames Transfer would convey raw water om the River Severn into the River Thames via a pipeline or via the disused, derelict Cotswold Canals.

IWA’s Navigation Commi ee will be engaging with these consultations, emphasising the benefits of using canal restorations, new, navigable channels and existing waterways for open water transfer instead of pipelines.

All these roles require a endance at around eight commi ee meetings per year, and the need for general availabili during the week to take on duties a ributed to the role. You will of course also be required to a end the event.

For more information, or to register your interest, please contact Christine Smith by email: christine.smith@waterways.org.uk.

Festival Of Water

The IWA Events Committee needs your help ahead of the 2023 Festival of Water in Pelsall, West Midlands. The three-day event takes place every August Bank Holiday, and is organised and staffed entirely by volunteers. It is an opportunity each year to remind the public of everything IWA does and everything that only IWA can do for the waterways. The event is free to the public and there are live performers in the Entertainments Marquee all weekend, as well as plenty of activities for both adults and children. We attract about 100 boats and nearly as many campers.

We also have to attract a good selection of caterers, traders and exhibitors, and this is one area where we need your help – it’s a major income stream for the festival.

Jane Elwell, the Chair of Events, has taken on the job of recruiting caterers and traders as well as all her other responsibilities. We really need someone to take on this role, initially, of course, with Jane’s help. We have a core group of traders and caterers who attend every year, and we would like to reach out and add to this group, looking especially for local businesses and charities to engage with the local community.

It’s not just recruiting and selling space – someone has to record and manage traders’ application forms and their requirements for space, power and water, as well as liaising with the site team on the allocation of spaces. We can tailor the role to suit the volunteer, and in the past caterers and traders have been managed by two different volunteers.

We also need a volunteer to identify sources of grant funding and sponsorship. Finding grants that are available could become a valuable source of extra income, and so could local businesses prepared to sponsor us. We would have to make sure that we comply with any terms attached to grants, and also that any grants and sponsorships are properly acknowledged and publicised, in our programme or on banners, for instance.

For more information about volunteering as a committee member for the 2023 Festival of Water, please get in touch with IWA National Treasurer, John Butler: john.butler@waterways.org.uk.