Boaters’ Update 15 December 2023

Merry Christmas and happy boating,

Damian

In this edition:

• End of year message from chief executive
• The 2023 lookback
• Vote for your representative
• Maintenance, repair and restoration work affecting cruising this weekend
• Privacy Notice and Schedules update
• Bits & bobs

End of year message from chief executive

As we fast approach Christmas, and as this is our last Boaters’ Update of the year, I wanted to offer my best wishes for the festive season and take a moment to reflect on all that has been achieved in 2023 as well as the challenges and milestones that lie ahead.

First, it was with some relief that we didn’t suffer a repeat of the long dry period we suffered in summer 2022 which left parts of the network closed for several weeks. A healthy amount of rainfall in July and August may have made boating less enjoyable some of the time but it kept rivers and reservoirs topped up so that – for the most part – we didn’t need to close parts of the network to protect water supplies. However, our network is constantly exposed to the extremes of the weather and in October we saw Storm Babet wreak damage across the country, stretching our resources to cope and leaving significant repairs to undertake in addition to our planned works. I’m pleased that we were able to undertake the work to re-open the worst-affected sections relatively quickly.

We’ve faced other storm clouds this year, with – a year after it was due - the Government’s announcement of the outcome of the Grant Review in July. Whilst a further 10 year funding commitment is to be welcomed in principle, the severity of the reduction in grant over the period from 2027, falling by roundly £300 million in real terms over ten years with the ‘gap’ increasing year-on-year, was hugely disappointing. Such a significant shortfall will undoubtedly impact the long-term future of the canal network we all care passionately about and which delivers so much benefit to society at large.

That’s why we immediately launched our #KeepCanalsAlive campaign and we’ve been overwhelmed by the positive support we’ve received. I know how many of you have made your voices heard, with many thousands emailing your MP which, in turn, has caused many of them to voice their concerns. In parallel, the Fund Britain’s Waterways campaign, has united a wide range of passionate waterway organisations to lobby Government to reassess its decision – you can read more elsewhere in this Update.

We didn’t expect a sudden change of mind from Defra but – with our politics being so volatile, and a general election to come in the next year – we are hopeful that our ongoing campaign will ultimately lead a future government to re-consider the grant settlement in light of the overwhelming case for public investment to sustain a thriving and well-cared for network.

So we will continue to lobby MPs and other influential figures on all sides of the political divide. And we’ll continue to ask for your support, and support from all those who use the waterways. While boaters are at the heart of the waterways, we know that millions more benefit and value them and mobilising their support will be vital too.

Whilst the funding decision has dominated much of my work this year, the Trust as a whole continues to work tirelessly to operate, manage and maintain our great canal network and to provide the service that boaters rightly expect from us. However, after two years of high inflation, and with our grant frozen and pressure on other income streams, it is becoming more challenging to deliver the scale of works we need to do – especially with essential reservoir investment consuming a large proportion of our available funds.

This has meant we’ve had to increase boat licence fees by more than inflation, and following our consultation, to changes in the structure of licence fees with wider boats and those without a home mooring paying an additional surcharge from next April. These decisions are never easy ones to make, and we’ve tried to balance the need to ensure sustainable funding to maintain the waterways with a fair approach to fees. We remain committed to looking at all other income sources so that boaters alone aren’t being asked to cover the impact of our increasing costs – but your contribution is valued.

We’ve also re-doubled our efforts to secure charitable income. Our pre-Christmas Keep Anderton Alive campaign to fund the major renovation that the Boat Lift needs has successfully met our target for this phase of the appeal and we’ll be promoting other fundraising campaigns in the new year. We’ve successfully secured funding from Levelling Up, Towns and Shared Prosperity funds and from Active Travel England, Sport England and the National Lottery. Being in straitened times we will continue to look further afield to secure the additional funding to deliver ongoing care and improvements.

I’m also delighted to report that our volunteering goes from strength to strength with over 500 thousand hours already delivered in the period since 1 April and broader work being tackled – from off-side vegetation clearance to maintenance projects on locks and other assets.

This year we’ve also engaged boaters to gather your input in a range of other ways. We’ve done our first boater ‘census’ which has yielded some useful insights. We’ve asked for your views on the services and facilities you use when on your boat and have re-affirmed our commitment to provide essential boater facilities such as recycling, pump outs and waterpoints within a maximum cruising distance. Your feedback on accessible boating helped in developing a partnership with the new Accessible Waterways Association, which culminated in, a couple of weeks ago, a successful joint event, Towards Accessible Waterways, which heard from a diverse range of disabled waterway users about how access has been improved and how it can be improved further.

After months of pressing your case we managed to convince Government to extend the energy support scheme to continuous cruisers and we were able to unlock access to around £4 million of funding. Over 80% of eligible boaters have now claimed this vital (and deserved) support.

As we head in to the shortest, and possibly bleakest, days of the year, the Trust will have many of our teams out working hard to complete our pre-Christmas stoppages and do all the vital work to keep the network open and safe through the holiday period. After new year, the second phase of our winter programme will begin in earnest with both face-to-face and virtual Open Days to give you the chance to get behind the scenes and learn more about the work we’re doing, meeting some of those working on these vital projects.

I hope you’ve enjoyed your past year boating on the canal network. Whatever challenges 2024 brings we will continue to do our best to provide the open and inviting waterways that we love and, continue our pursuit of the funding that the waterways need for this and future generations of boaters.

Merry Christmas and Happy Boating in 2024,

Richard

The 2023 lookback

There are just over two weeks of the year left, so what better time to take a moment to look back over the year on the waterways?

But first, if you’ve been an avid reader of all 24 editions this year, you would have read over 87,000 words – I hope they’ve been useful and entertaining and have given an insight into our work and some of the challenges we face. If there’s a particular theme or article you’d like to see in 2024, then do please get in touch.

The word cloud below (the bigger the word, the more frequently it’s appeared this year) shows that, in a change from previous years, two words have far greater prominence: ‘support’ and ‘government’. This is almost definitely due to the damaging funding announcement from the Government in the summer, but more on that below as we journey through the year.

The wider world

We live in an interconnected, and hectic, world. Even on your boat you probably won’t have missed this year’s big headlines. Below is a reminder of some of them and, perhaps, some that may have slipped you by:

• The coronation of King Charles III
• The warmest year on record (strongly predicted, the global average temperature temporarily exceeded 2°C above the pre-industrial average for the first time in recorded history)
• India lands the first rover on the south pole of the Moon
• South Africa wins the Rugby World Cup
• Archaeologists in Zambia find the world's oldest wooden structure, dating back 476,000 years
• A new Beatles song achieves their first UK number one in 54 years
• Australia wins the Cricket World Cup
• Samples from the asteroid Bennu are returned to Earth for analysis

On the waterways

It’s been a busy year, as usual, in the world of waterways. Below, we canter through some of the stories and news that featured:

January

The issue of sticky fuel remained head-scratchingly unsolved as boaters continued to report engine issues caused by this blight. We’ll follow up on this story in the new year.

We’re hugely grateful for the time and effort that boaters give to the protection and preservation of our wonderful waterway network. This valuable contribution was highlighted, along with a request for more of it, as we launched our biggest ever volunteer recruitment drive.

February

During 2022 the UK experienced its hottest year on record (in a series going back to 1884), with England & Wales recording their ninth driest spring (in a series going back to 1910) and the summer being the fifth driest on record (in a series going back to 1836). Our Annual Lockage Report was published and showed that this had a major impact on available water resources, leading to water resource-driven restrictions, primarily in the North West. In turn, this caused local reductions in lock usage and reduced 2022’s annual lockage compared to previous years.

We also reported that there had been an ongoing problem with trolleys from the local Asda supermarket being dumped in the Walsall Canal at Ryders Green: in just three months we removed a staggering 94 trolleys. As a boater you’ll know that these submerged trolleys present a safety risk, not to mention it being a very time-consuming and resource-hungry task to get them out. After continued lobbying, we’re relieved to say that the supermarket agreed to install the £1 coin lock system on their trolleys. They also took away the recovered trolleys and covered some of the costs we incurred!

March

As you’ll no doubt know, this is the time of year when we’re wrapping up our winter stoppage programme. It was no different this year as our £multi-million programme of maintenance to protect and preserve navigation and a broad range of waterway infrastructure came to a close.

Perhaps the most recognisable items we’d been working on were lock gates. We replaced 131 lock gate leaves – already nine more than we the previous year - all handmade in our workshops.

Those lock leaf replacements were part of the wider programme which was made up of 150 separate projects. Another one of the big undertakings was at the Cathedral of the Canals aka Anderton Boat Lift. The lift, which typically carries around 3,000 boats a year between the Trent & Mersey Canal and the River Weaver, had not been able to operate since early August 2022, when the safety mechanism in one of the lift’s gates failed due to a broken ‘shoot bolt bracket’.

The £450k winter maintenance project saw two giant hydraulic ram cylinders, which each propel a caisson transporting boats up and down, being given a much-needed overhaul. The large metal tank caissons were detached from the rams and propped up about two metres above ground level to allow the 20-year-old cylinder seals to be replaced, the ceramic rams re-polished and re-set, and 12,000 litres of hydraulic oil to be changed.

Elsewhere, and as you’ll know, we regularly talk about eco-friendly principles that could make your cruising, and mooring, have less of an impact on the environment. As you can imagine we were pleased to announce that, in partnership with Oxford City Council, a near £193,000 grant was made by the Government’s annual Air Quality Grant to create six eco-visitor moorings, complete with electric points, at Aristotle Lane on the Oxford Canal.

While much of the infrastructure of the canal network will remain pretty much as it was 200+ years ago, we seek to innovate wherever we can to not only make the most of our limited funds but to make the lives of those using the waterways easier. This is why we developed, and announced a trial, of a contactless payment system to replace the old card reader payment systems. You probably already know that the trial was successful and customer service facilities are now being upgraded!

April

It was with sadness that we reported the passing of inspirational waterways volunteer Diana Skilbeck MBE (80). Diana was given a highly appropriate send-off at the National Waterways Museum, Ellesmere Port, when her coffin was transported on historic working boat, Gifford, which she had once helped to save and restore.

We reported that boaters on the Kennet & Avon Canal had been benefiting from a recently completed dredging programme on the canal near Hungerford. The dredging was carried out over nine weeks and completed and saw the removal of 6,000 cubic metres of silt, enough to fill two-and-a-half Olympic swimming pools. A complex project, coming in at around £400,000, including months of surveying, planning and, of course, carrying out the work.

May

Together with the support of the boating community we called on all boaters to write to their local MPs to help raise awareness of the lack of energy bill support for those living afloat. After nearly 20 hours of various meetings with government officials, numerous emails and calls, our persistence paid off and a £600 grant became claimable by those living afloat – opening access to around £4 million – from which over 80% of eligible boaters have claimed their entitlement.

This was also the month when we published the results of our first-ever Boater Census. Intended to offer a snapshot of life on the waterways in the 21st century, 250 years after the network opened, it showed that the split between boaters with and without a home mooring was 76% and 24% respectively. It also reported that the typical boat on the waterways is a steel narrowboat with fixed beds for two people, and pull-out beds for two people or more. While most use gas for cooking (89.5%) and a solid fuel stove (66.6%), over half the

respondents have invested in solar panels (59%). Cassette toilets (57.2%) are the most popular, followed by pump-out (34.1%), with a minority choosing composting loos (8.8%). Showing that a boaters’ job is never done, 32.1% of respondents had experienced mechanical problems with their boat in the preceding 12 months.

June

The biggest waterways news of the year came out this month. Government announced a new funding settlement, spanning from 2027 to 2037, following on from our current grant agreement. With no provision for inflation from 2021 to 2037, plus annual cuts of 5% year-on-year from 2027, this comes to a reduction of over £300 million in funding in real terms over a ten-year period, compared to recent levels. Such a drastic decrease will inevitably result in a decline in the overall condition of our waterway network and, alarmingly, the possibility of canal closures. It puts at risk navigation, invaluable natural habitats, historic infrastructure and cherished public spaces. This is why we asked you to join us in our mission to #KeepCanalsAlive by emailing your MP and telling them why they need to be funded properly.

Your incredible action resulted in just shy of 12,000 emails sent to over 600 MPs across the country. This is a tremendous show of support that put canal funding firmly onto the political agenda. We have been enormously encouraged by the response from these MPs and other political stakeholders, many of whom have expressed their concern about the future threat to our canals by writing to DEFRA or speaking out in both Houses of Parliament as well as in the media.

This is alongside wide coverage on news channels like Sky News, ITV News, and BBC Radio 4's Today programme and in the national and regional press, as well as online opportunities such as on David Johns' 'Cruising the Cut' vlog. Our chief executive, Richard Parry, has been providing further insights into the implications of the announcement and raising awareness of the need to fund our canal network adequately. As the situation became clearer, we received many letters and comments from readers, councillors, and MPs, expressing their support for the Trust.

We have hosted many MPs who wished to visit their own local stretch of canal to better understand the work we do as a charity, to ensure our canal network is well maintained and protected for future generations. This is a heartening response that ensures your voice is being heard. The real threats that canal closures could pose – to our health and wellbeing, nature recovery, biodiversity, heritage, and local prosperity – are being recognised by the right people.

July

The way we look after the network, and how we’re looking at innovative ways of working to save money and improve efficiency, was the hot topic as we settled into summer. The age, breadth and scale on our canal network means we have the third largest estate of listed structures in the country, and it’s vulnerable to the increasing impact of climate change and increasingly frequent extreme weather events. And all the restoration that took place at the turn of the millennium means many of our lock gates, which have a working life of around 25 years, are coming up to retirement and will need to be replaced or have their lives extended.

We have already started working on evolving our longer-term planning, with the intention of being able to give three years’ notice of the largest-scale stoppages. While the bulk of our repair work has been carried out over the winter months, when there tend to be fewer boats cruising, longer-term planning, that offers plenty of notice to boaters, could enable us to run a year-round maintenance programme. We’d ensure boaters and hire boat companies would have sufficient notice and options to plan alternative routes, and we’d be able to benefit from kinder weather conditions and more hours of daylight.

We also announced, against a backdrop of the Government announcing sweeping cuts, an £89m programme of engineering work illustrating the scale of the resource required to protect and preserve the network. In the current financial year (2023/24), we will complete more than 450 separate engineering projects, including manufacturing and installing 123 lock gates. We are also carrying out over 1,000 reactive repairs and continued the vital programme of works to our canal-feeding reservoirs.

August

We were delighted to reveal that we secured a further 53.5 miles of Green Flag waterways across England and Wales, with 709 miles now holding the international quality mark for parks and green spaces. This includes the entire 46-mile-long Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal for the first time, along with the Stourbridge Canal and Town Arm, also in the West Midlands. These were added to our existing Green Flag stretches, which range from once unloved stretches of urban canal that have been transformed into pleasant, wildlife-rich places in the centre of towns and cities like Manchester, Sheffield and Walsall, to more rural locations such as the Kennet & Avon and Monmouthshire & Brecon canals.

On 13 August in Birmingham, Trust staff and volunteers supported the Fund Britain’s Waterways campaign against government cuts to funding. It took place from 11am - 1pm, and saw campaigners descend on the canals and towpaths outside the Mailbox. We shared our huge thanks to everyone who helped the event run smoothly, with minimum disruption to boating businesses and other users, and great coverage in the media.

September

Heritage adviser, Elizabeth Thomson, explained why the birth of our network and the explosion of the brickmaking industry are so inextricably linked. Elizabeth took readers on a journey that demonstrated why, for many centuries, bricks had been the building material of choice in Britain, favoured for their strength, durability and resistance to fire. So, when plans were drawn up for the very first canals in the mid-1700s, the call went out for brickmakers across the country. Before long, brick kilns and clamps began springing up along the routes of newly excavated canals.

In response to the government cuts in funding announcement, Gloucester’s Waterways Action Group held a Cruise and Rally at the end of the month, in Gloucester Docks. Boaters cruised from Saul Junction to the Main Basin. Residents, walkers, anglers, local businesses, and charities marched from The National Waterways Museum in the Docks to join with boaters to hear talks from both national and local waterways groups, including Les Etheridge, chair of Fund Britain’s Waterways and our chief executive, Richard Parry.

October

Readers were reminded that the restrictions of Smoke Control Areas can now be applied to boats. A Smoke Control Area is a legally defined area where you cannot emit a substantial amount of smoke from a chimney – this interactive map* from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) shows where they are. You can be issued a penalty by the local authority of between £175 to £300 if you break this rule.

In addition, you must not buy unauthorised fuel for use in a Smoke Control Area unless it is to be used in an exempt appliance. You can be fined up to £1,000 if you break this rule. A lot of wood burning stoves are classed as an exempt appliance – you can find a full list of those classed as exempt here. If your wood burning stove isn’t listed then you are only permitted to burn authorised fuels in Smoke Control Areas – a list of authorised fuels can be here. Note that different rules apply in England and Wales and the differences are set out when you look at the lists of appliances and fuels.

We also announced the launch of a campaign to raise awareness and interest in flighting plastic pollution and asked for boaters to join us. Among others, Deborah Meaden from TV’s Dragons’ Den, already had signed up and said: “14 million items of plastic rubbish end up in and around our canals and rivers every year and, despite the Canal & River Trust spending over £1 million trying to tackle the problem, this litter still causes devastation for wildlife in our waterways and the oceans beyond.”

November

The latest Boater Report was published illustrating the vulnerability of the ageing canal network and its exposure to more frequent extreme weather events brought about by climate change. It goes on to celebrate examples of the work carried out to keep the waterways safe and open for navigation. Despite the increasingly unpredictable, and damaging, conditions, some statistics from the Report show that much was still achieved:

• 10% increase in the investment in maintaining our network, to £199.5 million, so that it benefits boaters and a wide array of users.
• Dredged over 35 miles of waterways at a cost of £7.4 million.
• 208,090 hours of volunteer lock keeping.
• 120,000 tonnes of material removed from navigations.
• 325 in-house construction projects.

Despite the late autumn weather, a flotilla of boats delivered a visual and vocal message to the Palace of Westminster that funding cuts for our canals and rivers are unacceptable and damaging. The boats, a mixture of leisure and commercial, drew parliamentarians’ attention to their presence and the banners they were displaying by sounding their horns and holding station outside the Palace of Westminster. They were cheered on by a group of supporters on Westminster Bridge. The boaters and supporters acted on behalf of a new campaign group, Fund Britain’s Waterways, which represents over 100 organisations with varying interests in the waterways. The Canal & River Trust was represented on the cruise by regional director Ros Daniels and national boating manager Matthew Symonds.

December

In the last edition we offered the unique opportunity to go behind the scenes at some of our work sites as we host both face-to-face and online ‘virtual’ open days. The open days will tell the story of the vital canal repairs and maintenance taking place this winter through the

people who carry them out. Highlights are five face-to-face open days, including at locks on the Kennet & Avon Canal, Shropshire Union Canal and Birmingham Mainline Canal where time-worn gates are being replaced with new handcrafted oak gates made by our specialist carpenters.

Vote for your representative

The nominations for election to the Trust Council have now closed. 23 people have been nominated to fill the four spaces for private boater representation. This means that Civica, our appointed election services provider, has circulated voting information and voting opened on 13 December (you may have already viewed candidates' manifestos and photographs). Please keep an eye on your email inbox as voting instructions were sent to those within each constituency who are eligible to vote.

Voting closes at midnight on 10 January 2024. The results will be published on our website on 12 January 2024.

Congratulations to David Kent who has been elected unopposed in the Fisheries & Angling Constituency.

Maintenance, repair and restoration work this weekend

As someone who’s out on, or by, the water more often than most, you’ll know that there are times when we need to fix things that unexpectedly break. So, below, you’ll find a list of navigations that have ongoing restrictions that may affect you if you’re planning to get out on the water this weekend:

• Birmingham & Fazeley Canal
• Bridgwater & Taunton Canal
• Chesterfield Canal
• Fossdyke Canal
• Grand Union Canal
• Kennet & Avon Canal
• Leeds & Liverpool Canal
• Macclesfield Canal
• Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal
• North Stratford Canal
• Nottingham & Beeston Canal
• Oxford Canal
• Peak Forest Canal
• River Ouse
• River Severn
• River Trent
• Rochdale Canal
• Shropshire Union Canal
• Stainforth & Keadby Canal
• Trent & Mersey Canal
• Upper Trent
• Weaver Navigation

When restrictions to navigation happen, we get them up on to our website as soon as we can – always best to have a scan before you set off. Have a read of the article below to find out how to get stoppage notification alerts on your smartphone. If you have any questions about a specific closure, or spot an error in our system, please get in touch.

Privacy Notice and Schedules update

While it may not be at the top of anyone’s to do list, we have updated our Privacy Notice and you might like to read it. By now you will have received an email in relation to our Privacy Notice and Schedules update. As part of our commitment to transparency when it comes to your personal data, these have been updated to make them:

• Easier to follow
• More clear about the type of information we process
• More transparent about why we collect your information and what we do with it
• More precise about the lawful basis relied upon
• More comprehensive about who we share your information with

You can find the updated Notice and Schedules on our website. You do not need to take any action, but a quick review of the updated documents is advised.

Please note that your information rights remain unaffected, and if you would like more information on these or anything else concerning your personal data, please get in touch with our information governance team at: [email protected]

Pump out card refunds

We have now received a high volume of refund requests. Some have been refunded directly from the online shop portal within your customer account immediately on receipt. However, we have received many which require manual intervention, these are taking slightly longer due to, mostly, cases of unknown location of purchase and date of purchase.

Some customers will receive a refund in part from the web licensing portal but will have to wait slightly longer if some of the pump out cards purchased predate the web portal’s new online shop. Please also note that as we approach Christmas there will be a small delay in processing refunds as teams are away from the office over the festive period. If you’re yet to return yours, you’ll find more information in the last edition.

Bits & bobs

• Hammersmith & Fulham Council is consulting on a new, borough-wide Smoke Control Order which will come into place on the 7 of October 2024 subject to approval by the Secretary of State. The consultation on this order will close on Wednesday the 7 of February 2024. If it comes into place, this order will consolidate the existing smoke control areas in the borough and bring moored vessels within its scope. To find out more and have your say, please go to the Council’s Air Quality page by clicking the link: Smoke Control Order Consultation 2024. The notice for the Smoke Control Order 2024 is also available to view in the Council’s four libraries: Hammersmith Library, Shepherds Bush Library, Askew Road Library and Fulham Library.
• We continue to work with the Middle Level Commissioners and the Environment Agency to review the viability of including their navigations within the Gold Licence arrangements. To enable us to gain an understanding of the numbers of craft with a home mooring on Middle Levels we have now included in the selection ‘Other Navigation – Middle Levels’ for Home Mooring status. If your home mooring is on the Middle Levels we would appreciate you updating this via your customer account.
• A present has come early for boaters in London as you will be able to book use of Limehouse Lock online (same as for Thames Lock) via the online licensing portal. We will be managing the lock from 20 Dec and ask that bookings for the lock are made at least 48 hours in advance.

Happy boating,

Damian