CAMPAIGN EVENT AT RICKMANSWORTH

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Local organiser Clive Fennell writes:-

Well Ricky would be different, and sabotaged by a fisherman!!

We wanted to block the canal, then an hour before we do, we hear siren.! "Whats going on?" we ask.

The canal towpath and canal is shut further down, A fishernan has caught a grenade — bomb squad on the way! Shutting canal and tow path we could not do that. He did better than us. Some of our boats were on the wrong side.

OK, let's have a thunder storm then. Well it is Ricky! Let's add a gust of wind that will blow everything away.

So with all this the leisure cruisers stayed put in their moorings or by the tow path and everybody walked to Batchworth.

But still we had the working boats, and a few other hardy souls so a blockade was formed with about 30 boats but another 30 or so who walked down the tow path and left the boats by the aquadrome or above Batchworth.

So how do we do the Blockade? Let's be different — put 1 in Batchworth lock, 6 in front of the Rickmansworth Waterways Trust centre — and how do we block the other side of the bridge? Well let's be different, let's untie one end of the boats and have them all parallel across the canal, so you can walk across a boat from one side to the other. What a picture! Add to that an orange smoke bomb, just to prove we did have weapons as well.

Adrian Bull and Chris Bennett added to the entertainment, Then our MP David Gauke came and gave a Speech of support.

We had representatives from Lib Dem and Conservative parties, as well as fishing clubs and IWA. Many pedestrians walked through the area during the afternoon signing the petitions and listening to the speeches.

The canal was re-opened with entertainment in the White Bear with a total of 8 bands.

The whole day raised a lot of awareness for the campaign

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