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Dazzling narrowboat takes to the water


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10 minutes ago, George and Dragon said:

Apparently Daventry Council want to create a new canal to bring canal boats and visitors (trade) into the town. In that case they would presumably want to connect to the CRT network. They might also want to contract with CRT to maintain the waterway since it's doubtful that the local authority could undertake such work in house and would therefore need to enter into an arrangement with another party.

 

I wonder if any discussions have taken place between Daventry and CRT.

 

Well they had published plans and Canalplan has the canal in as a proposed extension. But the website for the canal society is no longer on line and it all seems to have gone very quiet.

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4 minutes ago, StephenA said:

 

Well they had published plans and Canalplan has the canal in as a proposed extension. But the website for the canal society is no longer on line and it all seems to have gone very quiet.

The society that is attempting to restore the canal all the way to Shrewsbury is very much active: https://sncanal.org.uk/

Edited by wandering snail
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I stayed at an air bnb in Newport whilst on the last ever (Jan 2020) RCR boat maintenance course. It seemed a nice town and my wife explored the old canal. Lots of interesting canal architecture in place. I think it's about 5 miles from the Shropshire Union heading north. Heading south, if that happens, it would link to Shrewsbury. 

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50 minutes ago, George and Dragon said:

Apparently Daventry Council want to create a new canal to bring canal boats and visitors (trade) into the town. In that case they would presumably want to connect to the CRT network. They might also want to contract with CRT to maintain the waterway since it's doubtful that the local authority could undertake such work in house and would therefore need to enter into an arrangement with another party.

 

I wonder if any discussions have taken place between Daventry and CRT.

I thought that had all been dropped

41 minutes ago, StephenA said:

 

Well they had published plans and Canalplan has the canal in as a proposed extension. But the website for the canal society is no longer on line and it all seems to have gone very quiet.

Its all in the Express Daventry Conservatives ditch canal arm in favour of '˜realistically achievable' projects before switch to unitary local government | Daventry Express

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1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:

I seem to recall the Daventry Arm was going to have some sort of lift or inclined plane to get up from the GU level to the town centre. Which made the whole project unaffordable and a non-starter. If the geography had allowed for an arm all on one level it might have stood a better chance.

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Complete confusion here as I had taken it to mean Newport Gwent, and then have been wondering what part of the canal in Newport itself  is in water. Its obvious being from The Shropshire Star though isnt it 🙄.  

 

I can see it being restored, they are gaining lottery funds and recognition, its many less locks than the Huddersfield or Rochdale, and would probably get used as much if not more being relatively close to a number of hire fleets . 

 

 

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12 hours ago, wandering snail said:

The society that is attempting to restore the canal all the way to Shrewsbury is very much active: https://sncanal.org.uk/

But like other canal restoration groups I can't see anything obvious on that website about what their restoration proposals actually are!

 

It may well be buried in archive articles about individual projects along the canal, but where is the overview telling me which sections are in water, or under restoration, what the major blockages are and the proposals to overcome them, achievements to date, support from local authorities, funders and other bodies, etc.?

 

There's an in-your-face Donate button at the top of the home page, before you've even read anything about the organisation and its aims, but apart from that where is the encouragement to get involved by joining the society or donating my time?

 

Click on the menu, and after the Home page is the About Us section, which is full of all the boring stuff about reports and trustees etc. - all necessary but should be at the bottom of the menu. Where is the information to fire up the enthusiasm of a casual visitor to the website who might want to get more involved with the restoration project?

Edited by David Mack
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3 hours ago, David Mack said:

But like other canal restoration groups I can't see anything obvious on that website about what their restoration proposals actually are!

 

It may well be buried in archive articles about individual projects along the canal, but where is the overview telling me which sections are in water, or under restoration, what the major blockages are and the proposals to overcome them, achievements to date, support from local authorities, funders and other bodies, etc.?

 

There's an in-your-face Donate button at the top of the home page, before you've even read anything about the organisation and its aims, but apart from that where is the encouragement to get involved by joining the society or donating my time?

 

Click on the menu, and after the Home page is the About Us section, which is full of all the boring stuff about reports and trustees etc. - all necessary but should be at the bottom of the menu. Where is the information to fire up the enthusiasm of a casual visitor to the website who might want to get more involved with the restoration project?

Whoa, don't shoot the messenger. Maybe copy this all in to an email to them? And this first of three vids being made to show the route has just come up on my FB feed: 

 

Edited by wandering snail
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1 hour ago, wandering snail said:

Whoa, don't shoot the messenger. Maybe copy this all in to an email to them?

Certainly not aimed at you.

It's a point I've made before on the forum that some of these websites don't seem to have thought enough about their target audience and the headline messages they want to convey. I'm sure it's not unique to canal organisations, and I recognise that voluntary groups may be reliant on individuals with the right technical skills putting themselves forward for the webmaster role. But these days, websites and social media pages are the organisation's 'front window', and for best results should be led by someone with the right communication skills, with the graphic designers and web coders in a supporting role.

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