editorial disclaimer...

...on likely sites for 2023’s Canal Camps; weekend groups’ weekends; a canal opening; and the difference between “shortly” and “forthwith”

The editor’s disclaimer...

It’s been not unknown over the past couple of years for this column to begin with an editorial apology for something which I’d promised was about to happen in the previous issue, but which has in the meantime evaporated in the between-issues gap. And as often as not, that ‘something’ was ‘a programme of canal camps’, as Covid and other unforeseen circumstances conspired to screw up our carefully laid plans.

Well I’ve now learnt my lesson so this time, by way of a change, I’m getting my apologies in first in the form of a disclaimer: Nothing in the Canal Camps Preview in this issue is set in stone, or even in fairly weak-mix lime mortar. Basically (like last year) it has taken a little longer than usual to nail down all the details with the various canal societies and trusts that we work with (usually regarding accommodation, local authority permissions, funding and other things that they may have no control over - please don’t think I’m accusing the trusts of dragging their heels). As a result, we are unable to put together our usual camps booklet giving full details and timings of the year’s week-long canal camps in time to include it with this issue and get it to you before Christmas.

So rather than leave you with no information and having to wait until the next issue in February (or possibly an extra mailing in between issues) to find our where we’ll be working this year, we’ve put together a

Canal Camps Preview feature giving as much information as we can (including some of the sort of background information that we don’t have space for in the camps booklet about the restoration projects) on the seven ‘front runner’ sites that are likely to feature in the programme, followed by four more that we’re really hoping will also feature. We can’t promise that any one of them will be in the final programme, we hope that all of them will, and we’re pretty sure that most of them will.

But it isn’t just about week-long Canal Camps. There are plenty of other opportunities for volunteer work whose dates have already been confirmed. Several of the regional mobile groups have already put together most of their programmes of weekend working parties for 2023 - and we’ve included a special feature on three southern groups on pages 14-16. They’re going to be having a big impact on sites including the Wey & Arun and Cotswold canals this year, and they welcome new volunteers on any of their working parties.

And we’d be happy to report on what the other groups are up to in the next issuewhy not write something for us?

And as we’ve often pointed out, there’s a lot more to volunteer canal restoration than WRG and other mobile groups. As our Progress section shows, the local canal societies’ own working parties have been busy. And if I can draw your attention to one of them, it’s our old favourite the Montgomery Canal. It’s coming up for 20 years since the last time a new section of restored canal was reopened - from Queen’s Head via Aston Locks (scene of so many WRG camps in the 1990s) to Gronwen Bridge. The Shropshire Union Canal Society’s volunteers have just been putting the finishing touches on the last part of the length from Gronwen Bridge down to Crickheath Wharf, ready for an official opening in April 2023. And in the wider world of waterways? I’m afraid that there’s still no news as we go to press about the decision on future public funding of the Canal & River Trust’s navigable network post-2027, which (if it either ends or is significantly cut) could put the whole system at risk. At a parliamentary debate on the topic, MP and waterways supporter Michael Fabricant asked the Defra Minister to at least provide a timing for the decision, “and not just ‘shortly’. please”. The Minister Rebecca Pow replied, helpfully offering “forthwith” instead. And finally I’m not going to get away without an apology. I’m sorry this issue is a bit short.

Martin Ludgate