Boaters' Update October 2009

New boundary map & office details
BW’s new waterway boundary map is now available on waterscape.com. It shows BW’s eleven new waterways in England & Wales and the two waterways in Scotland. The changes come into effect on Monday 2 November 2009.

In BW’s new structure activities such as licence enforcement, moorings management and the delivery of major engineering projects will be managed by central specialist teams allowing the new waterways to focus on improving customer service and day to day waterway operations.

When making changes like these it is important that our customers and stakeholders can continue to stay in touch with us so at the end of October will be publishing a ‘getting in touch’ guide to make this easier. The guide will be available online and we will publish the link to it in next month’s Boaters’ Update. Printed copies will be distributed via canal interest groups and our waterway offices.

View BW’s new waterway boundary map & office details

BW’s Annual Meeting and future strategy for waterways
BW’s Annual Meeting took place on 6 October in Birmingham. The main theme of this year's meeting was BW’s proposed 2020 strategy and move to the third sector which could, in time, see the nation’s canals and rivers become part of a ‘national trust’ for the waterways. The Annual Meeting included a presentation from third sector experts who are helping to develop the strategy. Looking at the options, legalities, benefits and concerns of moving to the third sector, the experts previewed a report which they will publish next month. The presentation was followed by audience discussion, a question and answer session on the new strategy and general issues affecting waterway users and stakeholders.

Read more about BW’s 2009 Annual meeting

British Waterways Board appointments
Environment Minister, Huw Irranca-Davies, has announced the re-appointment of John Bridgeman CBE, TD, and Nigel Hugill to the Board of British Waterways. John Bridgeman has been appointed vice chair of the British Waterways Board, following Richard Bowker’s resignation to pursue interests overseas. The appointment to vice chair will be for three years and will run until 24 September 2012.

Read more about British Waterways Board re-appointments

BW’s mooring auctions
BW’s mooring auction system is now up and running with the first auctions ending this week. Notable differences from the previous tender system are that the starting (reserve) price is published along with current highest bid, and you have the facility to increase your bid during the auction. To view the website and over 40 auctions currently running please go to www.bwmooringvacancies.com

Winter stoppages 2009/10 on waterscape.com
Each winter BW undertakes a programme of major engineering works to help improve the fabric of the network. This year the winter stoppage programme includes the replacement of 200 lock gates leaves together with engineering work on 21 reservoirs, 20 bridges and six aqueducts.

Download the 2009/10 stoppage programme and view pdf maps at waterscape.com’s dedicated page to the stoppage programme.

Anyone who’d like a paper copy of the winter stoppage programme can obtain one by contacting BW’s customer service centre on 0845 671 5530 or emailing enquiries.hq@britishwaterways.co.uk who will print the latest up-to-date stoppage information.

Stay up to date with progress on winter stoppage planning and details of current advice and any emergency restrictions at www.waterscape.com/stoppages

WaterWatch
Winter is also the key time of year for BW’s reservoirs to replenish and, despite only 78% of the long term rainfall last winter, water-shortage related restrictions were largely avoided over the summer boating season.
The drier winter was compounded by further lower levels of rainfall in spring 2009, particularly in northern England, whilst a warm start to the main boating season increased boating demands for water and led to a relatively rapid drawdown of a number of BW reservoirs through April, May and June.

A mix of day to day monitoring, computer forecasting of flows and investment in water management together with unseasonably high rainfall in July means that the risk to navigation due to insufficient water resources is now very low for the rest of the year.

Freight through Three Mills Lock
The first three barges each containing approximately 200 tonnes of filter cake (the by-product of decontaminating the soil in the Olympic Park) were locked-out of Three Mills Lock last month on route to disposal in Essex.
For the immediate future the Green Barge Company, under contract from BAM Nuttall, is expecting to use the lock to remove up to 3,000 tonnes of filter cake per week.

BW’s sustainable transport manager, Kim Milnes comments: “Interest remains strong from other Olympic contractors who are considering using the lock to transport materials as diverse as aggregates to seating for the stadiums. We hope further traffic will shortly follow to join this new venture by Green Barge Company and the already existing waste traffic being transported by Bennett’s Barges Ltd for Veolia Ltd.”

BW workboat renumbering
BW’s nationwide fleet of 600 workboats is currently being reissued with boat index numbers. The process, which will be complete by mid 2010, will remove any anomalies in the current index numbering whilst improved centrally held records will ensure the fleet’s vigorous compliance with Boat Safety Scheme (BSS) requirements.

The new process removes the need for BW to issue licence exemption certificates for each of its craft as compliance with BSS regulations can be readily shown through the centrally held records.

Each BW workboat will have an index number in the 4,000,000 series. This will cover every item of floating plant including dumb hoppers (which are not covered by the BSS) and which were not often (if ever) currently fitted with licence exemption certificates.

Boat checker update
Last month BW received 135 sightings of unlicensed boats, logged up until the end of September. Of these reports 13% related to boats which had already relicensed and a further 55% were already in our enforcement process, 13% resulted in new cases being opened for action, and the remaining 19% were boats which were not identifiable through a valid boat index number but the details have been passed to our enforcement teams for further investigation.

Visit the online boat checker

Boaters’ Views Survey 2009
As the end of the main boating season approaches BW is sending out the 2009 Boaters’ Views Survey to a random sample of boaters this month. The survey asks those who receive a survey to think back over the year and record their boating experiences on the BW network: what they liked and also what they think needs to improve for next year. The survey allows BW to measure annual changes and the results are used throughout the organisation to help improve services and facilities.

Your opinions are greatly valued so if you receive a copy of the questionnaire, please take the time to complete the survey before returning in the reply paid envelope. The findings are anonymous and can never be traced back to individuals. All of the questionnaires are returned directly to an external market research agency and the data is analysed in accordance with Market Research Society guidelines.

Re-opening of Mon & Brec takes top spot
BW’s chief executive, Robin Evans, has announced that the overall winner of BW’s internal Waterways Excellence Awards 2009 is the project that has seen the repair and re-opening of the Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal.

Robin said: “Judging the Waterways Excellence Awards has been hugely rewarding as I had the opportunity to see so many great projects involving great people in great parts of the network. The enthusiasm and commitment of everyone was outstanding. I am very grateful to all those who submitted their particular project – 100 of them this year!

“I was particularly impressed by two recurring themes – appreciation of the heritage and involvement of volunteers. Getting the best out of all BW’s resources and people was another recurring theme, as was partnerships, with a truly inspiring variety of outside organisations and people.

“The task of finding an outright winner will never be simple, especially when all the projects have clearly demonstrated excellence in their own areas. However, I have decided that the repair and re-opening of the Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal is this year’s winner. This project had huge complexity in its design, execution and involvement of outside parties. What greatly impressed me was the way the local team managed those complexities – and they did so by using BW’s local and national resources to great effect.”

BW’s Waterways Excellence Awards celebrate individual and team contributions to the achievement of BW’s vision of securing a thriving, sustainable waterway network that is used and cherished by the public. BW wants to promote community interaction and these awards are an opportunity to showcase how the actions of those who work with the canals can have visible benefits for waterway users.

Read more about the winning Waterways Excellence Awards project

State of the Waterways Heritage Report
BW is the guardian of a valuable collection of industrial heritage – including 2,756 listed buildings, the third largest collection in the UK. Progress made in managing, maintaining and securing the future of this historic estate is set out in BW’s latest State of the Waterways Heritage Report

Highlights in the annual review include Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and its adjoining sections of the Llangollen Canal becoming a World Heritage Site. BW is believed to be one of just two public bodies to have a building at risk campaign (the other being the Ministry of Defence), with further progress made during the year on reducing the number of buildings at risk. The Report states that there are currently 35 buildings on ‘at risk’ registers – down from 125 four years ago. Of the 35, 11 are fully repaired and awaiting removal from local authority registers.

There was an increase in the number of heritage volunteers working with BW in 2008/09, and the Report gives a positive commitment for volunteers to further help BW with a range of heritage activities.

Read BW’s latest State of the Waterways Heritage Report

Baby-grow allotments for first time gardeners
BW has gifted over 2,000 sq m of unused land alongside the Grand Union Canal in Hanwell, West London to local group, The Charity of William Hobbayne, as part of an initiative to encourage first-time allotment holders. The land will host 18 'baby-grow' starter plots as part of BW’s commitment to the Capital Growth Scheme.

BW’s environment manager, Leela O’Dea explains: “These new growing spaces are smaller versions of the traditional allotment plot. Given the shortage of allotments in London, and the sometimes daunting size of traditional allotments for busy and first-time allotment holders, these starter spaces are an ideal way to maximise the number of people who can have a go at growing their own.”

Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: "It is fantastic that BW is adding more canal side plots to our Capital Growth scheme to help local people to grow their own fresh food. Not only will the area soon be bursting with all manner of edible goodies, it will help to make the waterways even more attractive for local people to enjoy."

Volunteers from locally based construction company Bovis Lend Lease, the William Hobbayne charity and BW have completed site preparation works including: building an access ramp, clearing the access road and installing a new entrance gate to the site amongst other tasks.

Read more about these waterside allotments for busy and first-time gardeners

BW pilots community beekeeping
Following the publication of a report from the British Beekeepers Association showing that Britain's bee colonies are suffering unsustainably high losses, BW is looking at how land adjoining its canals and rivers can be used for community beekeeping.

BW has teamed up with Arts for Places to install hives along the Leeds & Liverpool Canal in Liverpool for the local community to adopt. Bees are estimated to be worth around £200m to the UK economy each year as they pollinate many of the food crops grown here, such as apples and oilseed rape. In recent years they have been hit by agricultural changes, which have reduced the availability of the wildflowers that are so important in providing food for the insects.

Over 20 local residents from Liverpool and Sefton trained as beekeepers as part of the project with the Arts for Places scheme. Now ten residents have joined Southport Beekeepers Association to maintain the hives on land adjoining the canal.

BW’s national ecology manager, Dr Mark Robinson comments: “The UK’s canals, rivers and reservoirs act as green corridors and safe havens for many species. Our honey bees are under threat and are in need of good habitat. By installing hives on the land adjoining our canals and rivers, BW is providing a safe environment for bees to thrive.

"It is important to engage local people in these schemes and we look forward to working with Arts for Places and the Liverpool community to make this a success, with a view to rolling out the idea across more of our network in future.”

Read more about beekeeping along the Leeds & Liverpool Canal

Win £100 in our wildlife photo competition
Becoming a beekeeper not for you? Get behind a camera instead! BW is calling on all keen photographers to get outside and capture an original image of a busy bumblebee by a canal or river.

The winning entry to the 2009 wildlife photo competition will win a £100 cash prize. Children are also invited to enter a special competition open to under 14s. £50 worth of vouchers is on offer for the best photo and the best drawing of any wildlife spotted by the canals.

But time is running out to stake your claim for these prizes as the competition closes on Saturday 24 October. The photo competitions are running alongside BW’s annual wildlife survey, which asks members of the public to record sightings of various species along UK canals and rivers.

Find out more about the photo competition and how to enter

For more information about BW’s annual wildlife survey see www.waterscape.com/wildlife-survey-2009

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Last updated: 15/10/2009