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Looking to the Future – an update on IWA's progress

Last year, IWA celebrated its 75th anniversary, a landmark occasion that prompted the organisation to take a fresh look at the role it plays in supporting the waterways sector and community. Former IWA National Chair, Paul Rodgers, shares the latest progress.

It’s no secret that, in recent years, IWA’s membership numbers have been in decline and that the Association has struggled to attract new members to support its existing base, both nationally and at a Branch level. If allowed to continue unchecked, this presents a serious risk to the future of the organisation.

There are lots of reasons for this decline, but one set of underlying factors that are consistently highlighted are a lack of clarity around who IWA is as an organisation, what we believe in and campaign for, and what it means to join or support us.

These four pillars of ‘who, what, why and how’ are the absolute bedrock of any charitable organisation and, understandably, our members and volunteers want to be clear about these. They also want them to be reflected in our strategic objectives, our marketing, at our events, in our campaigning and advocacy work, and in every other touchpoint with potential supporters.

The need to focus on defining and agreeing on these objectives has been a priority for IWA’s Board of Trustees over the last 12 months. At our AGM in September last year, and in the winter 2021 edition of Waterways magazine, we shared our plan to deliver a series of projects specifically aimed at these key areas, and also our intention to deliver them as soon as possible. We’re now in a position to be able to update you on the outputs of those projects.

As our reminder, we planned to review IWA’s role and purpose first, and from this to define our high-level strategic objectives as an organisation. We would then agree on the specific actions we would need to take to achieve these objectives, including a review of what we actively campaign for as a charity. With this in place, we would look at the best methods to engage both existing and potential members, volunteers, supporters and donors, to ensure their continued or new support.

All of these projects would be led by steering groups with representation from IWA trustees, senior volunteers and staff, to ensure the appropriate level of views from across the Association.

Looking at the review of IWA’s role and purpose first, the steering group agreed that it wanted the key output of this project to be a clear statement that summarised why IWA exists as a charity, what we believe in, and what we’re here to do. This would be grounded in clear and recognisable needs that both new and existing supporters could identify with, would give clear direction to the specific causes IWA currently supports (or will support in the future), and would appeal to a wider potential audience of supporters and stakeholders.

Here is what was agreed:

The Inland Waterways Association is the only independent, national charity dedicated to supporting and regenerating Britain’s navigable rivers and canals as places for leisure, living and business.

Commemorating ASHTAC at 50

IWA Manchester Branch and Waterway Recovery Group North West commemorated the 50th anniversary of Ashton Attack (ASHTAC) with two days of cleaning canals around Dukinfield Junction. ASHTAC followed on from Operation Ashton, when around 1,000 people worked on the Ashton Canal and the Lower Peak Forest Canal over a weekend in March 1972. The event contributed to the Cheshire Ring being fully reopened to navigation in 1976.

Ten years ago, a large clean-up celebrated the 40th anniversary, with over 100 volunteers from all over the country, including many original 1972 participants. The 50th anniversary event was more modest, with COVID19 uncertainties preventing a larger event, although significant work was done. On 21st22nd March, over 30 volunteers from the local area and from across the north-west area cleaned up the Ashton Canal near Portland Basin. Tasks included litter picking, vegetation removing, tree cutting and general canalside tidying.

The event was organised by Tameside Canal Boat Trust, Canal & River Trust and IWA Manchester Branch with help from Asda Ashton, Tameside Sea Cadets, Portland Basin Museum, Jigsaw Homes and the Wooden Canal Boat Society.

ASHTAC, 25th-26th March 1972.

£5m for Staveley restoration

Following local waterways campaigning, the Chesterfield Canal Trust has been awarded £5.3m from the Staveley Town Deal. IWA has supported the project, alongside years of campaigning against the effects of HS2 in the area.

Over the next three years, the canal will be extended by half a mile from Hartington Harbour onto the Staveley Puddlebank which runs across the Doe Lea Valley.

In addition, 2 miles of multi-use towpath to Renishaw will be laid, plus a new lock and two new bridges. There will be a siphon pipe to take the water from Staveley Waterside (the new name for Staveley Town Basin) to the new canal section. In addition, full designs will be prepared for further work.

IWA Trustee Appointments in 2022

In 2020, IWA moved to a new process for selecting trustees to sit on its board, in line with Charity Commission guidelines. These require charities to consider “the skills and experience the current trustees have, and whether there are any gaps”. We will shortly be seeking applications from candidates who demonstrate the experience and skill sets that will be needed over the next two years to complement the skills of existing trustees on the Board and to fill any vacancies.

Further details regarding the trustee application and selection process will be available on the IWA website in May, and at this stage, we anticipate that applications will need to be returned by the end of the second week in June. The selection panel will meet mid to late June with successful applicants being notified of their appointments at the beginning of July. The panel’s proposed appointees will be proposed to members at the AGM and members’ confirmation of the appointments will be sought. Following their selection, new appointees will commence their formal, legal role as trustees after the IWA AGM at the end of September 2022.

We welcome applications from people from all walks of life and will be further promoting these trustee positions on our website, our newsletters, as well as through wider advertising.

Next steps: information on the application process, which will detail the skill sets needed and the final details of the process to be followed, will be available on the IWA website in May. It can also be obtained from IWA’s Chesham Office - e-mail iwa@waterways.org.uk or write to Trustee Applications, Island House, Moor Road, Chesham HP5 1WA.

In August 2021. IWA successfully applied for a CADW grant to cover the cost of a structural survey of the Aberdulais Aqueduct. In September Mann Williams, which specialise in the creative conservation of historic buildings and structures, undertook the survey and produced a report at the end of January 2022.

The main conclusion of this investigation and report is that, despite appearances, the condition of the monument is relatively stable and in its current state repair is feasible. IWA believes urgent and immediate works should be done as quickly as possible to mitigate further damage increasing the cost and complexity of repairs.

In early May IWA, Neath & Tennant Canals Trust and CADW are planning to jointly host a site visit with all the key stakeholders (Natural Resources Wales, Neath Port Talbot Council, the Owners of the Aqueduct and Network Rail) to discuss and agree on the next steps for the project to conserve the structure, consolidating what is currently there, so that in the future it can be strengthened and relined and revert to navigation.

At a local level, there is a growing awareness of heritage and the importance of project heritage assets in the area. We believe there is a real opportunity to save this heritage asset and will continue to lead on this campaign.

IN MEMORIUM

Commander Peter Kelly, RN

I am honoured to have been asked to write about Peter Kelly, former IWA Trustee and member of the West Country Branch, who died on 8th February aged 83.

Peter John Louis Kelly was born in Portsmouth on 24th March 1938. He attended Colchester Royal Grammar School but decided that the academic world was not for him and, at the remarkably young age of 15, joined the Royal Navy as a Boy Seaman Grade II. Here his hidden talents flourished and he made his way steadily through the ranks, becoming a highly regarded captain of the survey ship HMS Woodlark and eventually commander of a fleet of three ships. On his retirement from the Royal Navy, he took up a position with the Sultan of Oman, where he had stewardship of the Royal Yacht and also learnt Arabic, no mean feat in itself.

Returning to the UK, Peter became treasurer of the Hydrographics Society, which he held for 20 years, he bought a narrowboat, Sharazad, and joined the IWA, where he made many friends. He was an IWA Trustee from 2002 to 2009, represented the South West Region on the Navigation Committee for some nine years, was Region Secretary from 2009 to 2013 and also edited Sou’Wester for five years. It was only a short while ago that Peter ceased being captain of his narrowboat, having had a water-based life for more than 60 years.

Peter met Jackie in 1960, they married in 1965 and had 38 years together until Jackie died in 2003. He leaves a son, Mark, and his family, including grandchildren George and Rosie, and we wish them well. A true gentleman and friend of the waterways: Peter we salute you. Ray Alexander

Aberdulais Aqueduct can be saved

Aberdulais Aqueduct.

IN MEMORIUM

Tony Davis

Tony Davis, who died from cancer on 15th February 2022, aged 83, was one of the Inland Waterways Association’s loyal supporters for over 50 years, not least being IWA’s principal representative on the Thames for over 30 years, and a recipient of the Cyril Styring Trophy, IWA’s most prestigious award.

Trained in estate management, Tony joined IWA in June 1967 and was involved in the early years of IWA London & Home Counties Branch Working Party and the production of its magazine Navvies Notebook. He was quickly involved in all aspects of the branch and during 1968-69 he established a slide library with over 500 photos covering the branch’s waterways for promotional use. Tony was secretary to the trade show at IWA’s National Rally at Guildford in 1970 where Waterway Recovery Group was launched. He was a keen supporter of the Basingstoke Canal restoration and attended Operation Ashton and other WRG big digs.

In 1971, when the branch was renamed London and South East Branch, Tony joined the committee and became IWA’s representative for the River Wey. He was passionate about preserving the Right of Navigation on the backwaters of both the Wey, and later the Thames, and amassed various legal documents and statements from past commercial operators testifying to their long public use.

In 1974, new IWA branches were being formed in the South East, and Tony took the lead with a Guildford Branch, becoming its first branch secretary. He remained active on the Wey & Godalming Navigations and became an IWA appointee on Thames liaison committees when Thames Water Authority took over the Thames Conservancy that year. He continued as IWA’s principal representative on successive committees on the Thames for the next 30 years through the eras of the National Rivers Authority and the Environment Agency. His accumulated knowledge and calm reasoning earned the respect of Thames Navigation managers and other river users, proving him to be a most valuable ambassador for the Association.

Throughout this period, Tony maintained his active support for the Basingstoke Canals and in 1991 he was master of ceremonies and a team leader for the reopening of the Canal by HRH The Duke of Kent.

In 1994, Tony took on the chairmanship of the now IWA Guildford & Reading Branch, before standing down from the branch committee in 2001 after 30 years of continuous service. He was awarded the Cyril Styring Trophy, principally for his work on the Thames. At the same time, he was appointed as IWA’s first Honorary Consultant Planner, a post he held for many years, providing assistance on planning issues, property management and building surveys advice, using his qualification as a fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. His assistance included dealing with the lease and rent review issues for IWA’s offices.

Tony had a very active retirement, moved his new narrowboat to France in 2003 and enjoyed extensive cruising on the French waterways up until late 2019 when he was hospitalised following a fall in Guildford High Street. He was also a long-serving trustee of the Elsa Conservation Trust, which supports conservation education in Kenya. Neil Edwards

HS2 Bill threatens the tranquillity of waterways around Middlewich and Lymm

HS2 (Crewe – Manchester) Bill

The High-Speed Rail (Crewe to Manchester) Bill for HS2 Phase 2b West was deposited in January 2022, with a public consultation on the Environmental Statement to the end of March.

IWA has studied the 335 reports and map books, totalling tens of thousands of pages, for their impacts on several waterways and the changes since previous consultations. The environmental reports detail the major adverse visual, heritage and community impacts the Proposed Scheme will have on the waterways from both construction and operation of the railway.

Noise impacts

However, the noise impacts on canal users, and particularly on the residential use of boats, is not adequately assessed and the noise mitigation measures proposed are therefore inadequate for each of the affected canals.

HS2 Ltd seeks to dismiss all canal users as ‘transitory’, with only short exposure to the noise from HS2. This ignores the facts that people live on their boats when underway, can moor for up to 14 days in most places, and often stay overnight on their moorings, whether these are officially residential or not.

IWA’s response concentrates on this outstanding issue of noise mitigation, and again asks that all canal crossings are provided with noise barrier fencing across viaducts and bridges, and with fencing or earth barriers on adjacent embankments.

Our response details how each of these interface locations is used for temporary, visitor and permanent moorings.

Waterways affected

The main affected locations are: • The Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire Union Canal –three viaducts close together at 7m to 8m height and affecting permanent moorings at Park Farm and visitor moorings at

Yew Tree Farm. • The Trent & Mersey Canal in the Dane Valley – three viaduct crossings (River Dane, Puddinglake Brook, Trent & Mersey

Canal) at 10m to 13m above canal water level, and affecting visitor moorings at Bramble Cuttings and permanent moorings at Oakwood Marina. • The Bridgewater Canal at Agden near Lymm – a viaduct 11m high directly above the Lymm Cruising Club moorings, which will be lost during the construction period of over three years. • The Ashton Canal and Rochdale Canal in Manchester city centre with the Main Compound for building the new HS2

Station right alongside the Ashton Canal at Ducie Street. At each of the viaduct sites, IWA has called for noise fencing 4m high for maximum protection.

Date announced for AGM

Notice is hereby given that the Inland Waterways Association’s Annual General Meeting will be held on Saturday 24th September 2022. Currently, we are planning for this to be a hybrid event starting at 11.30am, allowing for both in-person and virtual attendance.

Further details, including the meeting agenda, will be confirmed in due course, posted on the IWA website, and shared through the IWA Bulletin e-mail as they are available.

Do you have something to say about IWA or Waterways?

It’s your magazine so please write and tell us your views. We will aim to publish responses to letters that ask questions about any aspect of IWA policy or decision-making. Please write to The Editor, Waterways, c/o IWA, Island House, Moor Road, Chesham HP5 1WA, or e-mail f.llwyd-jones@wwonline.co.uk.

Snaps, falls and left-hand polers

Many thanks for Waterways issue 274, which my wife and I found full of interest as usual. We were particularly intrigued by the two features on punting. David Struckett’s sectional design is similar in principle to a daydream of mine in my 70s a decade ago. I got the idea from seeing sectional racing fours or eights on trailers by the Thames. I am pleased to hear that it works, and think he is wise nowadays to have a much higher free-board than traditional Cherwell punts.

If you consult IWA Bulletin 69 (Nov. 1963), you will find the article that Robert Aickman encouraged me to write about a punt trip from Oxford to Cambridge in 1963. In following years, the same group of punters reached Llangollen (returning via the IWA triumphant Stratford rally in 1964); over the Pennines to the outskirts of Leeds in 1965, down the Thames to London (with a detour to Godalming) and back via the GU in 1966; and north-west to the Severn in 1967 via Great Haywood, Stourport, and Worcester. In 1971, realising that one stretch close to Oxford had not been covered, we went up the Thames beyond Lechlade, until rapids near Hannington Bridge defeated even dual-poling.

In 1963, we started with a four-man crew, but from 1964 we felt that three was more comfortable, and even having just two was feasible, with 30 minutes on and 30 off. The bottom could vary enormously from our familiar Cherwell gravel – the Oxford Canal had much soft clay, but the Shroppie main line was a joy for poling. On the BCN, the colour of the ‘water’ varied from florid yellow to bright blue to black. Camp Hill locks had the sides dripping with tar. In those days we used wooden poles, with a forked metal shoe. In 1965, near Banbury, we broke a pole just near the end of the shoe. Not wishing to use our spare early in a long trip, we persuaded a garage to let us use a vice and electric drill (not so common then) to drill out the old stub. The mechanic who kindly aided us asked, “Is that a snake-catcher?” That question reminded me of the tale of the ancient Greek sailors who were stranded on a hostile shore and tried to walk home carrying their oars across country, and at one stage they were so far from the sea that locals mistook the oars for winnowing fans.

The waterways were pretty empty then, even the Oxford or Llangollen in July. Commercial traffic had largely ceased after the freeze of 1963, and pleasure-boating was in its infancy; you had to be affluent to own a family boat. We rarely found staff at places like Foxton, Watford, the Bratch, or Bingley, so we just had to work it out for ourselves. It was akin to the Marie Celeste, everything still there and working, but largely devoid of boats and people. But we did see a horse-drawn refuse boat on the BCN, flurries of activity around Anderton and the Bridgewater, and an enormous number of boats heading to the Stratford rally. We could wait for ages for a tow through long tunnels. After waiting for hours in vain outside Wast Hill Tunnel, we ventured inside in the evening, and the one oncoming narrowboat (met two-thirds through) slowed down gently to pass us; its steerer commented, “It must seem a very long way.” At Harecastle, again after another wait of several hours, we took advantage of the (1965) rule of “southbound only” on Saturday afternoons to slip through safely; punting in tunnels or across iron aqueducts needed great care. Fortunately, in Mike, we had a left-handed poler for the return trip over Pontcysyllte, so no one had to peer over a 126ftt drop.

Dick fell in the Cam of all places, and Mike fell in repeatedly on the Cherwell (twice in 10 seconds), but never on an expedition, and nor did David, Bryn, John C. or Roger. Fate spared me until the last minute of the final 1971 trip, when a well-worn pole snapped and catapulted me into the water. The nearest disaster came when moored on the tidal Thames at Brentford Creek, waiting to go up to the GUC. We returned from shopping to find the tide had suddenly turned after hours of slack water, and undid the padlock in the nick of time. However, on the Wey, we had rescued a teenage girl who tried to straighten up her parents’ new cruiser at their first unstaffed lock and found herself stretched from toes on the lockside to her fingers on the boat until gravity had its inevitable way. We also rescued a sheep on the Leeds & Liverpool.

Apart from the Bulletin, I was asked to show our 8mm amateur film to the London & Home Counties Branch, in 1965. In the audience, unknown to me, was my future wife Marion (we married in 1970), but we did not really meet until holiday cruises with mutual friends in 1968 and 1969. One of Marion’s friends was the late Claire Johnson, the editor of the branch magazine “The Windlass.” Claire was a redoubtable campaigner for the waterways, a veritable one-woman pressure group.

In the 1970s, my wife and I hired punts when we could, including from Wargrave to explore the Loddon, and Bath to see the Avon above Pulteney weir. Marion picked up the knack quickly. Later, in retirement on our narrowboat, we occasionally encountered poled or motorised punts around the wider system, including a few heading between Oxford and Cambridge. On the Thames near Goring, we saw an accomplished lady punter suddenly lose her poise and perform a slow, graceful descent into the river. On the Peak Forest Canal near Hyde, we saw a sign in a yard that said ‘Punts for hire’, but could not explore the mysterious possibility as no one was about. In our 70s, we sometimes had difficulty in assuring young staff that we did not want a chauffeured punt, we wanted a pole. Ah, happy days!

With best wishes to all in IWA, especially navvies, boating explorers and punters. John & Marion Pearse (individual members since 1963).