Waterways update: Museum, Stroud canal route, freight and Lawns

Museum campaign

Free entry is vital for the survival of the National Waterways Museums at Gloucester, Ellesmere Port and Stoke Bruerne - please consider signing the on-line petition and passing the link on to your friends:
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/waterways-museum/

Photo: canal near Saul

Stroud canal route

Key groups have criticised the analysis of survey figures for a crucial stage of the Stroud canals redevelopment. Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust and the Stroud Valleys Project both disagree with the way British Waterways has interpreted a public consultation over the route of the Thames and Severn Canal at Capel Mill. Rebuilding the channel at Capel Mill is part of the Cotswold Canals Partnership's larger project to restore the historic waterways from Stonehouse to Brimscombe. Three options for a route were presented to the public, who voted on their preferred choice.

However it appears that statements by British Waterways suggesting a route over the River Frome was a "clear winner" in the consultation were misleading. British Waterways, the lead partner, disputes this saying the consultation was fair.

The three choices in the consultation were:
Option A: cut through an adjacent disused tip Option B: to run low over the river as an aqueduct Option C: to remove the tip completely.

The two options relating to the tip route together received 54% of local votes, whereas the option over the river only received 46%.

Colin Studholme, of Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, reported in The Citizen, said: "These results clearly indicate that there are more people opposed to the river route option but the way the results have been communicated gives a false impression. I told British Waterways that I found their interpretation very worrying. My interpretation would be that by offering consultees two 'tip route' options, the votes of those people wanting the route to avoid the river has been split. The inference from this is that if you were to go back and ask those originally polled if they would prefer a 'tip route' or a 'river route', the result would be in favour of a tip route. I would therefore dispute that the river route is a 'clear winner'."

The Lawns work?

It appears that The Lawns work may have been completed. I am seeking clarification as this was nothing like the plans we were originally shown and there are far too few reeds in the 'reed bed' area. Perhaaps these are to be planed later?

Freight on canals?

I also caught a programme on BBC Radio 4 where Gerry Northam asks whether canals built in the 18th century can provide sustainable transport for the 21st. The government wants to get freight off roads and onto waterways wherever possible. But commercial barge owners say vital wharves are being sold off to property developers, and feel that British Waterways is not interested in freight. British Waterways defends its record. This is clearly an issue we need to be careful over in terms of Stroud's canal regeneration.

Listen again at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/pip/r8b7c/