SAVE OUR WATERWAYS WEB SITE
Reporting and energising the campaign against the cuts made by DEFRA.
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SAVE OUR WATERWAYS WEB SITEReporting and energising the campaign against the cuts made by DEFRA. |
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EVENTS PLANNED OR SUPPORTED BY
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EARLY EVENTSGATHERING OUTSIDE BW'S ANNUAL MEETING, Thursday 12 October, organised by NABO. This has now happened - see report here. HORSE-BOAT PROTEST, Friday and Saturday, Oct 13 and 14 in Manchester. This has now taken place, see report here. GLOUCESTER & SHARPNESS CANAL MEETING. A meeting to discuss the BW proposal for booked passages during winter on the Severn and G&S was held in Gloucester on Saturday 21st October. Although not part of our campaign, relevant issues were presented to the meeting.
FLOATING PROTESTS IN BIRMINGHAM AND ELSEWHERE, 25/26 November 2006A Protest Rally of boats was held in Birmingham over the weekend of 25/26 November. The main focus was a blockade of Salvage Turn, outside the Mailbox development at noon on the Sunday, to coincide with the broadcast from there of The Politics Show. IWA and RBOA were both involved. Read a report of the event here and a press report here, and another one (in PDF format) here. On the same weekend SOW and other organisations arranged a number of other blockades in strategic locations on the waterways. Those are reported in our event reports section, and linked to below, and there are lots of photos on our Flickr page.
AN EVENT THE FOLLOWING WEEKENDFor those local boaters and local anglers unable to make the protest gatherings in Birmingham or Coventry, Tamworth Cruising Club organised a protest gathering at Peel's Wharf/Fazeley Junction on Saturday 2nd December. A report would be welcome. CAMPAIGN CRUISE PAST PARLIAMENT28 boats took part in a campaign cruise organised mainly by the Inland Waterways Association and St Pancras Cruising Club, on Tuesday 16 January.
COMMUNITY PROTEST EVENTS
Over the weekend of 3 & 4 March [NOTE CHANGED DATE] we intend to arrange another nationwide series of events to coincide with the delivery of the petition a few days later. Some of these may be at the same location as the November ones, others will be at new venues. Our hope is that this round of events will have a strong focus on local waterside communities and will have active involvement by non-boating groups as well as boaters. A number of MPs who support our campaign have already indicated their willingness to attend such events. IWA is encouraging all its branches to put on events. Reports of these events will be put in our event reports section. There are som photos on our Flickr-site.
And at he same time, a resolution in support of our campaign was passed at the Liberal Democrat Spring Conference in Harrogate. Details here. AND LATER IN THE SUMMER.....We originally thought that by the time of this year's Budget in the Spring our campaign woud have been either won or lost. That now seems unlikely. The crucial decisions are those concerning the Government's Comprehensive Spending Review for the next three years. It seem highly likely that these wil not be made until the change of Prime Minister has happened and possibly not until October, so we're going to need to keep the campaign going rather longer than some of us expected. The difference is that now we're in the time of year when other waterways events are taking place, many of them already well into their planning by the time this timing became known. So we hope to persuade them to add a Save Our Waterways element to their existing plans. Here is a list (in chronological order) of those events we already know about which plan to do this. SOME THAT HAVE HAPPENEDThe Cutweb Internet Boat Club rally at the Bue Lias at Stockton (GU) during the weekend 31 March / 1 April had a significant SOW presence. Its raffle and auction raised nearly £350 for SOW campaign funds. Report to follow. IWA regional AGM combined with a festival and boat jumble at the National Waterways Museum in Gloucester on the weekend of 31 March and 1 April used a lot of SOW publicity material. A report would be welcome. The Action Director of the Business and Professional Women UK asked for some SOW publicity materials to disitribute to its delegates at its National Conference in Edinburgh, 13/14 April . IWA Canalway Cavalcade (at Litle Venice, 5 - 7 May) Organised by IWA Festivals.Report here. Devizes Boat Club Rally (5 - 7 May) on the wharf at Devizes. Report invited. There is a Northern BCN Campaign Gathering in the week beginning 5 May which ended with a protest event in central Birmingham on 12 May. Report invited.. The Rickmansworth Canal Festival over the weekend of 19/20 May Organised by the Rickmansworth Waterways Trust. Report here. THOSE STILL IN THE FUTUREThe organisers of the Middlewich Folk & Boat Festival , 15, 16 & 17 June have invited SOW to participate. We are discussing with them what form this participation will take. Visit their web site here. Newbury Water Fest, 29th July,
organised by the Newbury branch of The Kennet & Avon Canal Trust.
Contact Tracy Perryman, Trust Branch Chairman at the Stone Building
We'd be delighted to hear of any other events that would be happy to co-operate with us. |
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01635 522609 or Julie Dean
