Danny Brennan Chair East Midlands Waterway Partnership
Welcome and introductions Presentations • River Witham • Canoe trails • Waterside fun days • Shared use of towpaths • Working in partnership • Encouraging use of the tidal Trent Summary; Q & A Networking
• We’re 3 years old! Custodianship of 2000 miles of canals, rivers, heritage, environmental and property assets • 2014/15 spend – over £130m on charitable activities: • most applied to annual programme of planned maintenance and repair • £18m on larger infrastructure projects • nearly £11m on clearing and maintaining towpaths • nearly £7m on dredging - 130,000 tonnes of silt. • Exceptional volunteer input: • equivalent to nearly 60,000 days last year • East Midlands leading the way • worth £6.5m nationally – but also priceless. • Significant grant and development funding secured e.g. £830,000 for improvements on the Grantham Canal, working with Grantham Canal Society – now live! We’re now full participants in 21 st century – strong digital presence •
What’s all that for? • to maintain and improve the asset; • to widen access to and enjoyment of it and, in turn, • create that sense of common ownership of, and care for, the waterways we need for a sustainable future. Some ways to do so? • Increasing participation and activity – on and alongside the water; focus on young people • Re-connecting waterside communities • Developing partnerships with stakeholders
• Improvements − Lincoln visitor mooring extension − New visitor moorings – Chesterfield Canal − Trent Lock welcome station / education base • Volunteering − New partnership members − East Midlands: over 35,600 hours in 2014/15 with 11 active adoptions • Events − Worksop Water Day − Radcliffe on Trent Bio-blitz − Nottingham event planning • Research, project testing/development − Nottingham Trent University partnership
• Improvements − Tidal Trent − Visitor welcome at key destinations − Towpath harmony • Building partnerships − Existing (e.g. Grantham Canal Society, Lincolnshire Waterways Partnership) − New (e.g. local authorities, Lincoln BIG) • Youth engagement − Derbyshire continuation − Lincolnshire & Nottinghamshire • Health & wellbeing − Research − Projects responding to local need/demand
David Hutchinson Environment Agency & Seán McGinley Canal & River Trust
• Lincoln to Boston • CRT are the Navigation Authority • Lock Keepers at either end, and two other locks in between • Water is used for boating, rowing and angling • Towpath used for walking and cycling • Plenty of visitor moorings, many funded by LWP • Working with LCC and the EA in partnership over a number of years.
£185,000 a year is spent cutting weed from navigations in the East Midlands This is 30% of the spend for the whole country
• Plans to carry out dredging in early 2016 • Have surveyed the full length of the Witham • Dredging planned for the visitor mooring areas, upstream of Bardney Lock and several other locations along the river. • Estimated planned spend is around £250,000
W e’re keen to see more people use and enjoy the river and its towpath and are happy to listen to any ideas on how this can be achieved.
Liz Fleuty Canal & River Trust
Designing infrastructure to facilitate canoeing: • Car parking • Portage & get-in points • Signage
We’ll be using the places identified by canoeists to prioritise the need for improvements: • GREEN: Little improvement needed for a great trail • AMBER: Works that would help aid canoeists, but needing some funding • RED: Works requiring major investment, with a low priority for canoeists
• Big potential for canoe usage – but less well-known than other waterways • First trail - Langley Mill to Gallows Inn, Ilkeston • Second trail – Gallows Inn to Trent Lock • Coming soon!
Anyone can help us identify suitable trails - all we need to know is: • The places you love to canoe • Barriers to paddling on the East Midlands waterway network • Your ideas for involving canoeists
Robin Stonebridge East Midlands Waterway Partnership & Chesterfield Canal Trust
Caretaker of waterways Advocate for waterways
The Canal & River Trust helps transform places and enrich lives by creating, caring for and giving everyone access to living waterways, today and tomorrow. We aim to: • Breathe new life into our canals and rivers • Ensure our canals and rivers are cherished by and make a difference to the communities they serve • Help more people discover and enjoy the magic of the waterways • Increase access to our canals and rivers for current and future generations
• Trent Lock • West Stockwith • Radcliffe on Trent • Erewash • Worksop 1 • Worksop 2 • Nottingham
• Local involvement from playgroups to pensioners • Joint ownership and shared purpose • Willingness to try new approaches and themes • Having fun • Looking for sustainability
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Seán McGinley Canal & River Trust
• One of the most common issues raised by users of the towpath is the lack of space and the discourteous nature of some users towards others • The Canal & River Trust have created a national campaign called “Share the Space” to highlight this issue and to try to change behaviour • Within the East Midlands, the centre of Nottingham is the main issue
• Worked with students at Nottingham Trent University to look at this issue in Nottingham • Project work as part of their MDM Course • Research and survey work carried out on the towpath in May of this year • Also carried out some research on line and through Survey Monkey
• Perception is that cyclists are the biggest threat to walkers • Perception is that dog walkers are the biggest threat to cyclists • The major issue preventing harmony is a lack of consideration (not space or speed) • Uncertainty regarding the right of way had caused incidents • Over 50% of cyclists had been involved in an incident
• Education Code of Conduct / Campaign • Enforcement Volunteer Rangers • Engineering Signage / Markings
Valerie Holt East Midlands Waterway Partnership
• Stretches from Redmile to Harby and is in unfavourable status • Important for plants, birds and invertebrates • Grass-wrack pondweed out-competed by other vegetation • 2006 survey found the plant in an upstream section
• Natural England keen to dredge • Successful bid to Veolia for funding • Additional funding from Melton Borough Council • Match funding from Canal & River Trust • Carried out December 2014
• Collected from the Erewash Canal by students from Brooksby Melton College • Grown on at the college • Propagated and over-wintered at the Sustainable Land Trust
• Canal & River Trust • Veolia • Melton Borough Council • Brooksby Melton College • Sustainable Land Trust • Natural England • With assistance from the GCP Environmental Sub Group
David Pullen East Midlands Waterway Partnership & Inland Waterways Association
• The Trent is the main artery of our regional waterways • Connects north - south via East Midlands • “T1” - a waterway version of the A1! • Provides access to: • Fossdyke & River Witham – Lincoln, Boston, The Wash, Sleaford Navigation, Black Sluice Navigation, Fens Waterways Link, Witham Navigable Drains • Chesterfield Canal – Worksop, Retford - a beautiful and also underused canal • The tidal Trent is vastly underused – why?
• CRT East Midlands Partnership The Boating Association (TBA) The Inland Waterways Association (IWA). • Short on-line survey – 5 questions • 436 responses
• For how many years have you been boating? 2/3rds of respondents had been boating for 10 years + • Do you ever use river navigations? 90% “yes”, but only 40% frequently • Have you ever used the tidal Trent? About 50% “yes” • What stops you from using the river? Few visitor moorings & risk of boating are greater
• What would make you more likely to use rivers? − Detailed charts and written information − YouTube videos or similar − Buddying up with experienced boaters
Our planned actions: • Publicise the Boating Association (TBA) charts • YouTube video and apps (Nottingham Trent University) • Google Maps? • Develop a buddy system – IWA/CRT
@canalrivertrust & @CRT_EastMids /canalrivertrust /canalrivertrust canalrivertrust.org.uk
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