Navvies News Save your stamps

navvies News

New funding for restoration, Cromford needs new blood, WRG Forestry are back at work, more about vans, and season’s greetings from the Ed

From the IWA Restoration Hub...

For those of you involved in canal restoration societies and trusts, the following piece by Ian Sesnan and Ray Alexander on a source of Government funding which has already resulted in a large grant for the Montgomery Canal may be of interest...

New Government Funding Sources coming on stream

The Levelling Up Fund was launched earlier this year and a small number of restoration projects have received funding approval. The most noteworthy probably being the Montgomery Canal which has received an award close to £16m [see feature, page 10].

Local authorities in all parts of the UK can apply for these funds in the upcoming rounds and now is the time for restoration leaders to be discussing this with your local authority. There is one application allowed for each UK parliamentary constituency and the MP must support applications.

This fund will probably have further rounds this year and next - for capital projects that can complete within two to three years. It will be superseded by a new Shared Prosperity Fund which will be similar but is expected to have longer timescales and support revenue and capital projects.

Information about future funding rounds and what the priorities will be is not published yet but one thing is for sure – now is the time to think carefully about what projects you could put forward and get discussions going with MP/local authority.

There is an IWA Briefing Note on the subject: see waterways.org.uk/

Attention WRG van drivers!

More about Congestion Charge and Ultra Low Emissions zones...

The four van/minibuses in the main WRG Canal Camps fleet (BOB, EHP, RFB and SAD) have now been set up for automatic payment of the London Congestion Charge and also (for the two vehicles which aren’t exempt, that’s BOB and EHP), also the London Ultra Low Emissions Zone (which has now been extended out to the north and south circular roads). That doesn’t mean you can drive through these zones with impunity - it will still mean WRG or its parent body IWA will have to pay, so bear that in mind when planning your journey and think about who it should be charged to. But it does mean that if you do drive through these zones, IWA will automatically get charged, so there’s no danger of anyone getting fined if you forget.

The bad news is that auto-pay isn’t available for the other places with emissions zones as yet, but we have set the vans up for payment via head office.

Your help needed on the Cromford Canal

The Friends of the Cromford Canal are looking for new Trustees to move their restoration plans forward in 2022. We have planning approval for a significant restoration project at Langley Mill but we need new enthusiastic Trustees from all backgrounds to help guide us through these exciting times.

We are an active charity whose aim is to restore the Cromford Canal to navigation over the 14.5 miles between the end of the Erewash Canal at Langley Mill Basin and Cromford Wharf.

Presently there is only a 1.5 mile length of canal in navigation, between Cromford Wharf and the Derwent Aqueduct at the northern end of the canal, and a short length at the southern end from below the road bridge through the first lock to the end of the Langley Mill basin, but in between the line of the canal is still present on some reaches whereas other sections have unfortunately been lost to new development and a new alignment will be needed. Last year, we obtained planning approval for a 1km reach

And WRG Forestry too...

We’ve already mentioned that London WRG and Kescrg have restarted working parties; as pictured here WRG Forestry are also back at work, on a new site on Somerset’s River Parrett. It would be good to hear from NWPG and BITM too in the next issue - any news, folks? of the canal which is known as the “Beggarlee Extension”, starting from the Langley Mill basin heading north up the Erewash valley [See our restoration feature in Navvies issue 303].

We operate a trip boat on the northern section of the canal on a commercial basis to provide some funding for modest repair and maintenance work along the canal and have aspirations to extend this section of the canal further.

The charity’s management board realise that we need an urgent Trustee-refresh and we are looking for people with a background and interest in canal restoration and preferably who have specific skills to bring to our team. We are particularly short of engineering and finance skills.

So if you think you can help us accelerate our restoration and development aims please get in touch: we are looking for enthusiastic and energetic individuals who can work co-operatively with existing Trustees.

Please see our website www.cromfordcanal.org for more detail on our canal and aims.

Interested parties should email the Chairman David Martin for an informal chat at chair@cromfordcanal.org.uk Stamps wanted

With Christmas cards dropping through people’s letterboxes, it’s a good time to remind you that the WRG Stamp Bank collects used stamps and other items (empty printer ink cartridges, old phones, aluminium cans and foil, coupons, old coins and banknotes) and passes them on to canal societies to fund restoration. Send them to WRG Stamp Bank, Steve & Mandy Morley, 33 Hambleton Grove, Emerson Park, Milton Keynes MK4 2JS, Tel: 01908 520090, mail@morleytowers.org.uk.

And speaking of Christmas

Christmas greetings and all the best for the New Year to all our readers. My sincere thanks to all our contributors during a rather trying year; also to Chris Griffiths, John Hawkins and the envelope-stuffing team at the London Canal Museum for making sure it gets printed and sent out; to Jen, Mikk, Alex, Jonathan and all at head office for all their support; to Lesley for proofreading; to Robert Goundry for rounding up progress reports; and to anyone I’ve forgotten. I hope I really will see more of you on site in 2022! Martin Ludgate page 43