Boaters’ Update September 2009

Stourport Canal Basins triumphs at National Lottery Awards
Residents in Stourport are celebrating after a project to restore the town’s historic canal basins were voted the UK's favourite Lottery-funded heritage project, beating hundreds of projects from across the UK. The restoration of the basins won the prestigious title of Best Heritage Project and a £2,000 cash prize to spend on further improvements.

John Sergeant who presented the project with their award, said: “It has been an honour to meet all the fantastic staff and volunteers who run this brilliant project, and to have the chance to find out more about it.

“It really is a wonderful example of how Lottery funding has made a difference to the local community and beyond. I am so thrilled for them that they have received this much-deserved recognition tonight and I was delighted to have presented them with the Best Heritage Project award. I wish them all the best for the future in their good work, which is having such a positive impact on so many people.”

Read more about the Best Heritage Project Award for restoration of Stourport Canal Basins

Heritage Open Days this weekend
From 10 -13 September join English Heritage in celebrating England’s fantastic architecture and culture with free access to many old buildings and canalside locations across the country.

Heritage Open Days celebrates England’s architecture and culture by allowing visitors free access to interesting properties that are either not usually open or would normally charge an entrance fee. Heritage Open Days also includes tours, events and activities that focus on local architecture and culture.

BW is once again getting involved at locations across the country. Events include tours of The Kiln in East Midlands, tours of Alexandra Warehouse and the Kiln at Gloucester Docks, boat trips at Victoria Quays and history talks at Standedge Tunnel Visitor Centre in Yorkshire.

Find these and other BW Open Day events this weekend

Find full Open Day details of everything that’s happening in your area

Help save historic boats
The National Waterways Museum (NWM) has joined forces with publishers, ‘Waterways World’ to launch a new Supporters Scheme for its national collection of historic boats at Ellesmere Port.

From a 1000-year old log boat to a concrete barge and from a coracle to a grab dredger, the NWM’s collection illustrates the many types of vessels which have carried cargoes and people on our canals and rivers over the centuries.

Over the next few years, regular donations by museum supporters will help the NWM to re-establish a fully working boatyard at Ellesmere Port, allow it to restore and maintain its historic boats, and put more boats on display at the museum and on the network. Donations will also go towards helping to train others, particularly young people, in traditional boat building and repair skills.

Read more about the new Supporters Scheme for the NWM’s national collection of historic boats

Waterways Action Squad brighten up canal tunnel

A group of young people have created a new piece of wall art at the NWM to celebrate the start of a major new youth volunteering project, and to brighten up a graffiti-covered canal tunnel.

Funded by v, the national charity for youth volunteering and the Bank of America, and run by BW and The Waterways Trust, the Waterways Action Squad is a growing group of young volunteers aged between 16 and 25 who want to get involved in the care and promotion of canals and rivers in the North West.

The colourful new mural was designed and executed by nine young people, aged between 22 and 25 years, from Manchester, Sefton, Chester and Liverpool. The painting is made up of five panels depicting different aspects of waterway life: industrial heritage, recreation and leisure, life on a boat, the museum, and youth volunteering.

23 year old Victoria Kastenbauer from Manchester led the design process, and was one of the nine volunteers involved. A graduate from the Glasgow School of Art, Victoria explains: “Creating this bright painting, which now obscures some ugly graffiti, has been both great fun and a valuable experience for my CV. After an inspiring tour of the museum and a ride on the museum’s trip boat Centaur we sketched out our ideas and got together to discuss them.

“Once we’d agreed the final design, we divided up the work and started painting. We hope everyone who visits the museum will enjoy our bright designs and their message that the canals are wonderful!”

Over the next two years, the Waterways Action Squad will offer over 570 volunteering opportunities giving young people the chance to develop a range of practical and life skills. The activities will range from one-off taster sessions, like the mural project, to part-time activities and full-time placements. Specific tasks and projects will be developed in consultation with young people themselves.

Read more about the Waterways Action Squad and how you can get involved

Rare bird recognised at reservoir

A rare and unusual sighting of a male ruff at Brent Reservoir (also known as the Welsh Harp), is indicating that, for wildlife at least, summer is well and truly over and autumn is upon us.

The ruff (Philomachus pugnax), a medium sized wading bird, is a special visitor to the North London reservoir, as not only is it a relatively rare spot for the twitchers who monitor the site, but it was also seen about four weeks earlier than expected.

With a long neck, a small head, a rather short slightly droopy bill and medium-long orange or reddish legs the ruff is currently on the RSPB red list. This means that it is currently a globally threatened species and has seen significant decline in the UK breeding population over the past 25 years.

Roy Beddard, Welsh Harp Conservation Group, spotted the ruff with other local birdwatchers. He explains: “Seeing a bird that is in decline visit the reservoir is a welcome sight to any conservation lover. But to see the bird as early in the season as we did here in Brent is very unusual.

“It indicates to us that the birds are starting their migratory season early this year, which in all likelihood is due to the mixed weather in their breeding areas. Essentially they think autumn is here and are undertaking their flights south to get ready for winter.”

Read more about this unusual sighting at Brent Reservoir

Record your waterway wildlife spots

BW mooring vacancies
The development of BW’s mooring vacancies auction system is now in the final stages. Tenders will continue to be published up to and on Friday 11 September with the auction system due to go live on Monday 14 September.

The test site can be viewed at http://bwmoorings-phase1.ws-dev.positive-dedicated.net/volunteers.php and feedback is still welcome.

Boat checker update
Last month BW received 137 sightings of unlicensed boats, logged until the end of August. Of these reports 9% related to boats that had already re-licensed and a further 64% were already in BW’s enforcement process. 9% resulted in new cases being opened for action, and the remaining 18% were boats that 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

BW prosecutes speeding boater
BW has secured the successful prosecution of a boater following a number of offences at Brayford Pool in Lincoln.

At the Lincoln Magistrates Court hearing the skipper pleaded guilty to the two BW bye-law offences of speeding and inconsiderate boating, and was fined a total of £347.

The boat was exceeding the speed limit through Brayford Pool on 30 May creating excessive wash, which was causing concern to owners of boats moored nearby.

The speed limit on the River Witham is 4mph. Boats exceeding this limit can cause problems by violently rocking moored boats and, in more rural locations, can cause damage to river banks.

BW’s acting general manager for East Midlands’ waterways, Sean McGinley said: "Whilst we want to encourage people to enjoy Lincolnshire’s waterways the behaviour of this individual was unacceptable. The waterways are there for everybody and where inappropriate behaviour of individuals is threatening the safety or enjoyment of others we will take the necessary action."

BW’s draft winter stoppages programme
Can’t wait until the end of the month? A draft copy of the winter stoppage programme for 2009/10 is available as Excel and PDF downloads on www.waterscape.com/stoppages.

During this month the data will be converted into the usual map format and information integrated with the waterscape.com search facility.

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

waterscape.com is on Facebook!
Following hot on the heels of its debut on Twitter, waterscape now has its own Facebook group – the place to come and show your appreciation for all things canal-related.

Share your comments, views, events and pictures with the rest of the world. Simply log onto facebook.com and search for 'waterscape'.

Register now for the Boaters' Update
Sign up for your free monthly boaters’ e-newsletter, the weekly waterscape newsletter or stoppage alerts by clicking on www.waterscape.com/signup.

Last updated: 10/09/2009