CAMPAIGNING WITH YOU HS2, the transfer of EA navigations, restoration and over-crowded moorings are among the issues we’re campaigning on with your help. Here’s how we’ve been doing on these and other affairs...
HS2 feedback
IWA has responded to HS2’s consultation on design refinements to the preferred route for Phase 2b.
Andrew Denny.
The Association, which has serious concerns over the rail project’s impact on inland waterways, has objected to a number of proposed changes to the previous (2013) route, in particular proposals to move a rolling stock depot at Golborne to a site at Wimboldsley, north of Crewe. Here it would impact the Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire Union Canal with a wider crossing, bringing noise and visual disturbance for a 1km stretch alongside popular moorings. On the same waterway, a single crossing has now become a much wider crossing with three lines approaching the New Crofton Rolling Stock depot north of Crewe. Meanwhile, plans to move the route in the Middlewich - Northwich area in Cheshire up to 800m westwards, impacting the Trent & Mersey Canal
The West Coast main rail line over the Middlewich Arm. The HS2 Phase 2b bridge near here will be four times the length.
where a single crossing now becomes three crossings on very high viaducts and embankment, have also been contested. Other areas of concern include proposals to increase the vertical height of the preferred route as it passes into Long Eaton and the ‘East Midlands Hub Station’, so increasing noise and visual impact on local residents and the Erewash Canal. IWA has also recorded reservations about a number of other refinements, which could affect canals and rivers in Leicestershire, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire, including on the Ashby Canal near Measham, and the Chesterfield Canal at Staveley and Norwood. The Association’s full response to the consultations, which closed on 9th March, can be found at waterways.org. uk/hs2.
HS2, EA transfer and Restoration Hub among 2017 objectives Bolstering restoration efforts will form a cornerstone of IWA’s objectives for the coming year, including publishing a high-level report on the subject and consolidating the launch of the Association’s ‘Restoration Hub’. Among other targets over the next 12 months are mitigating the threat posed to the inland waterways by HS2, monitoring progress on the transfer of Environment Agency waterways to the Canal & River Trust, and improving the boating experience. The latter could be helped by a report, also scheduled for the next year, on how waterways usage has changed over the last five years and users’ visions for the decade ahead. In total, IWA has set itself nine targets for 2017, with its longer term objectives to be published later this year.
CRT licence fee changes welcomed
A proposed review of CRT’s licensing structure could potentially address the issue of overcrowding in certain stretches of the waterways system and how services can be adequately resourced, believes the Association. IWA also acknowledges that the present method of charging by length of boat, rather than length x beam, could be seen as unfair to boaters with smaller, narrower vessels. CRT’s consultation will be run by Involve, an independent charity. As part of a three-stage process, Involve will initially interview representatives from the main boating organisations to discover their views on how the consultation should work and what it should cover. IWA will be taking part and putting forward proposals that have been agreed by its Navigation Committee.
Why campaign with IWA? We strive to make the waterways better for all. 10
| IWA Waterways
010 campaigns update SH.indd 10
Summer 2017 19/04/2017 16:02