David: Banbury Canal Day

I WENT to Banbury Canal Day (by car) last Sunday, for the first time for several years.

The event has grown considerably since I last saw it and a fine day had brought out a large crowd, so big that it was actually quite difficult to walk along the tow path and I was in some danger of falling over the notices warning you that there was a canal there.

There were several trading boats present and some directly canal related stalls, including a couple from the IWA. Noticeable by their absence was any sign of the Canal & River Trust, except for a work boat moored up full of rubbish, bedecked with notices saying that it had all been dredged from the canal the previous Friday.

Quite a good idea, but no other presence—surely this would have been an ideal opportunity to sign up 'friends' and recruit volunteers. I asked other people if they had seen any sign of CaRT and they hadn't either, so if they had people there, they were very well hidden. Yet a year ago I went to the Berkshire County Show, not a canal related event at all, but CaRT were there trying to sign people up—without much apparent success.

Restoration projects

It's a pity that some people have a negative view of the value or feasibility of projects like the Bedford-Milton Keynes Link or the Cotswold Canals. Yes, money is short at the moment, but boom will follow bust as it always does (pace Gordon Brown) and sooner or later something will turn up.

No one in 1991 would have dreamt that the Rochdale and the Huddersfield Narrow would be usable only 10 years later. The Droitwich restoration started in the 70s and many people regarded it as a hopeless project, but the volunteers plugged away and in the end achieved their goal. There is absolutely no reason why the same thing should not happen to any of the current projects, or all of them, providing that they are kept alive in the public (and the official) mind.

Eventually it will be the canals' turn for lottery money—we did pretty well around 2000 and after a decent interval, there's no reason why we shouldn't do so again, provided there are some active projects and dedicated people to fill in the forms.

David Hymers