Crowland trail boat event On 1 September Chris Howes (IWA Peterborough Branch Chair), Derek Smith (IWA trail boat events adviser), and myself (representing IWA Lincolnshire Branch), invited Crowland parish councillors to the EA Crowland slipway to gauge local enthusiasm and consider logistics for a public event to publicise the B2P Wetland Corridor project. See the picture on page 5. Nigel Birch, South Holland District Council (SHDC) Inward Investment and Economic Development Manager helped IWA to organise contact with Crowland PC. Although we had expected to meet two councillors over the two hours at the slipway, the fact that in total seven councillors came to talk to us is a clear demonstration of the increased public profile IWA has been able to bring to the B2P project. IWA promotional banners and posters Our branches in East Midlands IWA are finalising the new branch area banners and posters to identify and publicise the work of their branch. The first of the new format pop-up banners were used by Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire branches at the Grantham Canal Society Discovery Day on 14 October. This exercise has very effectively demonstrated that IWA East Midlands region is
a very wide mix of different types of navigations, navigation authorities and canal restoration groups. The legend on the prominent and eye catching national waterway map which forms one wall of the new IWA gazebos sums this up perfectly “IWA works to support and restore ALL 6,500 miles of the waterways system”! Grantham Canal Society Discovery Day At the Grantham Canal Society (GCS), annual Canal Discovery Day on 14 October, IWA Notts & Derbys and Lincolnshire branches used one of the striking new gazebos to increase IWA’s visual presence at Woolsthorpe Wharf. Although it was an atrociously wet day we were able to talk to several visitors who were not previously aware of our nationwide work on the whole waterways network. To demonstrate that this is not just an aspiration, we need a general IWA poster for events like these to emphasise that restoration, for example via IWA’s Waterway Recovery Group (WRG), is fundamental to the core of IWA activities. Congratulations and thanks to GCS for their huge volunteer effort in organising this event every year (despite the weather!). David Pullen
Page 8 Aegre 152 - November 2018