Autumn report from the Fens

SINCE late June,  Cambridgeshire and West Norfolk were declared to be areas of East Anglia that are in drought, with parts of the Midlands, South West and South East in a 'near-drought' state, writes Kelvin Alexander.

In the drought-affected areas, water levels and flows on the Nene, Cam, Great Ouse and on the Middle Level have remained around normal for this time of year, with no restrictions on navigation or use of the rivers due to the drought.

Targeted for brass

At the new moorings in West End Park in March, CCTV is being installed. This is welcome as increasingly boats are being targeted for their brass (scrap brass £2,600 per ton) mushrooms, and the only ones to benefit from this apart from the 'never do well low life' are the chandlers.

In the Fenland town of Chatteris, a number of streets had all the brass numbers and door fittings removed in one night. Peterborough is getting pretty bad for this, along with a increasing numbers of Eastern Europeans living rough along the riverbank.

Commercial traffic

Over on the Great Ouse, commercial traffic is to return to the river. Anglian Water is to use barges to transport sewage between Ely in Cambridgeshire and King's Lynn in Norfolk, replacing a fleet of 16 lorries.

Anglian Water estimates that barges carrying sludge from both Ely and Boston to Kings Lynn could reduce its lorry movements from 60 to 10 per day. Sewage sludge would be transported along the river to Kings Lynn, where it will be turned into fertilizer. This is of benefit to boat owners as the 200 ton barges would insure that river around Denver is well dredged.

The solution

Many people have made comments about how to deal with speeding boats. The Middle Level Watermans' Club now has the solution. Anyone passing the Watermans' Yard will have noticed the torpedoes (Ex RN Mk20's) up on the bank.

So be warned, slow down as speeders will be torpedoed.

Licence fees increased

Down in Cambridge, the Cam-boaters are up in arms with Cam Conservators' plan to increase licence fees well above inflation. The Cam Conservancy licence is the most expensive in the country in terms of cost per mile of waterway, at £77 per mile. The Environment Agency Anglian licence is only £3.11 per mile and British Waterways only 11p per mile.

The Cam Conservators face a deficit of £50,000 so where has all the money gone? Options put forward by the Conservators to increase their income include raising registration fees, charging for events on the river, introducing a toll for boats using the locks. So have your say and complete the survey at www.camconservators.co.uk by 7th October 2011.