'Well being' is it worthwhile?

[Midnight]

Cruising down the Avon from Stratford when it occurred to me that there is not one sign telling it's 'better by water' or suggesting I will feel better by visiting the riverside. Yet lots of folks walking, fishing and relaxing by the river. It boils my p1ss to see CRT spending tons of money on Facebook adverts, blue signs and the like promoting a visit to a canal when the system is in terminal decay. How come the Avon Trust manage to keep all the locks in good condition - not one broken paddle. And this so called 'well being' initiative, how much funding does it actually bring into CRT's coffers?

Edited August 31, 2022 by Midnight

[Thomas C King]

Aside from CaRT my issue with "well being" and "wellness" in general is that it takes a lot more than a walk in nature to feel "well", when I think they're talking about mental health. Specific to CaRT: in so far as the outdoors can help mental health, and health in general with vitamin D and exercise, water and canals are neither necessary nor sufficient for "wellness".

 

If the objective is the best outdoor space possible, it'd be more efficient to plow the money into making our parks as best and frequent as possible. Of course, that wouldn't make the canals navigable, which should be the purpose.

Edited August 31, 2022 by Thomas C King

[dmr]

And saddest of all I have now spoken to so many towpath walkers who say the towpath is no longer a healthy relaxing place to be due to the speeding and aggressive cyclists, so much for wellbeing.

 

I fully understand that the "blue sign pandemic" is something CRT feel will help secure another government grant. I was never convinced by this, but with "Thick Lizzie" in charge and a plan for low tax and cuts cuts cuts I really think CRT have blown it.

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

2 minutes ago, dmr said:

And saddest of all I have now spoken to so many towpath walkers who say the towpath is no longer a healthy relaxing place to be due to the speeding and aggressive cyclists, so much for wellbeing.

 

I fully understand that the "blue sign pandemic" is something CRT feel will help secure another government grant. I was never convinced by this, but with "Thick Lizzie" in charge and a plan for low tax and cuts cuts cuts I really think CRT have blown it.

For my well being I have NOT being following the news. 
“Thick Lizzie” is a new one to me 😂😂 love it. 
I put the news on about 10 days ago and nearly stomped on my iPad. 
 

[nb Innisfree]

When I was young I used to have the occasional bout of depression, not serious, just normal healthy 'unjustified' kind, sort of a sulk I suppose looking back, I can smile now but then it wasn't funny, taboo to talk about in those days, it suggested "mental instability" 🤣

 

I felt aggrieved 🙂

 

It would last 2 or 3 days before it went away but for me a short cure was a few hours surrounded by nature, no one to blame or get angry with, just me and indifferent nature, little sign of civilisation, everything seemed just the right balance. 

 

 

[Heartland]

Why paint litter bins blue?

 

 

[Rob-M]

1 hour ago, Heartland said:

Why paint litter bins blue?

 

 

So boaters can see them when they are bobbing along in the cut...?

[wandering snail]

Blue bins to match the dog poo bins. 

[Tony1]

On 31/08/2022 at 20:40, nb Innisfree said:

When I was young I used to have the occasional bout of depression, not serious, just normal healthy 'unjustified' kind, sort of a sulk I suppose looking back, I can smile now but then it wasn't funny, taboo to talk about in those days, it suggested "mental instability" 🤣

 

I felt aggrieved 🙂

 

It would last 2 or 3 days before it went away but for me a short cure was a few hours surrounded by nature, no one to blame or get angry with, just me and indifferent nature, little sign of civilisation, everything seemed just the right balance. 

 

 

 

I'm lucky enough that I've never been touched by any form of depression, mild or severe. So I've never been in need of a 'cure', or some form of healing, but I still get a unique feeling from being in a natural landscape- and especially a mountainous landscape, or a rugged rocky coastline. 

I suspect that on a deep and animalistic level, human beings don't really thrive mentally from living in large, overcrowded concrete cities.  

I've thought for a long time that for humans, living in cities is like chickens living in battery farms (but much less extreme). 

We can see and sympathise with the suffering of these animals (or at least some of us can), and yet we ourselves often fail to see what our own needs are, as animals.

We continue to live our lives in cities, where millions of us don't get to experience a truly open and natural landscape for weeks or sometimes months on end. 

Canals and city parks are really just a stopgap, a sticking plaster over the psychological issues caused by a lack of natural landscape and by overcrowding. 

Almost anyone who has stood on the top of a mountain or a seaside cliff edge will know that unique feeling it gives you.  

That feeling is very difficult to describe, and to understand. But we all have that feeling when we stand within a vast mountainous landscape. 

I sometimes wonder if that is the feeling that a factory-farmed animal experiences when it is first released into an open field. 

The animal probably doesn't understand why it feels happier to be in an open space in natural daylight, just as we don't understand exactly what it is about the mountains and the landscape that affects us so much. We can't even explain what the feeling is, really. 

And for inner city dwellers, walking a canal towpath perhaps briefly gives them a bit of that feeling of a battery chicken being released into an open field. 

 

 

Edited September 1, 2022 by Tony1

[Midnight]

31 minutes ago, Tony1 said:

.........0

And for inner city dwellers, walking a canal towpath perhaps briefly gives them a bit of that feeling of a battery chicken being released into an open field. 

 

 

I'm sure it does but do they need to be encouraged by blue signs and Facebook ads telling it's 'better by water' or can they work that out for themselves.

Edited September 1, 2022 by Midnight

[LadyG]

I actually feel better today due to going to a nice swimming pool, just walking by a canal often annoys me due to litter and dog poo!

A few blue signs would be acceptable, but not more than one every couple of miles.

 

Edited September 1, 2022 by LadyG

[Tony1]

7 minutes ago, Midnight said:

I'm sure it does as does but do they need to be encouraged by blue signs and Facebook ads telling it's 'better by water' or can they work that out for themselves.

 

I'm sure you're right and there probably is a lot of pointless waste involved in the ad campaigns, but my own take on it is that when looked at against the background of a disintegrating NHS, a vastly understaffed and failing police service, potentially a decade of austerity that will make the last ten years look like a land of milk and honey, and now an incoming fuel bill crisis that will mean great misery for millions of UK people this winter, I'm not sure I have enough emotional bandwidth to worry about CRT's efficiency. 

 

 

Edited September 1, 2022 by Tony1

[Midnight]

2 minutes ago, Tony1 said:

 

I'm sure you're right and there probably is a lot of pointless waste involved in the ad campaigns, but my own take on it is that when looked at against the background of a disintegrating NHS, a vastly understaffed and failing police service, and an incoming fuel bill crisis that will mean great misery for millions of UK people this winter, I'm not sure have enough emotional bandwidth to worry about CRT's efficiency. 

 

 

Back to my original point. Is the marketing needed and how much additional funding has it created?

[Tony1]

2 minutes ago, Midnight said:

Back to my original point. Is the marketing needed and how much additional funding has it created?

Back to my answer- to be honest I don't really care.

 

[Midnight]

Just now, Tony1 said:

Back to my answer- to be honest I don't really care.

 

Not from Yorkshire then?

[Tony1]

2 minutes ago, Midnight said:

Not from Yorkshire then?

 

Correct

 

[SLC]

Noting the blue dog pooh bin, it is not clear to me if you can use the bin for other rubbish such as alcohol cans. It is the norm now not to segregate normal domestic waste from dog pooh bags and the same bin can be used. The bin in the picture above does not encourage the litter droppers to use it which is a shame.

We have walked the canal tow paths for years and speaking as someone who has suffered from depression/anxiety it has not always worked! For some it undoubtedly helps - the fresh air, the exercise and the chance to think things through. But there are many instances where a walk is ruined by inconsiderate users of the tow paths. Apart from dog waste and the pooh bags left for someone else to collect, the cans and bottles you are attacked by mindless cyclists who in 80% of cases do not let you know they are coming past while dashing to or from work or trying to beat their best time. Which cycling club organised a time trial over a tow path? The electric bikes and worse still the e-scooters (which as a guide dog trainer I abhor), the motor bikes and this season the magnet fishermen who think it acceptable to through a magnet out on the top of a nesting bird. Neither bird nor ducklings were seen again. Yet no one is empowered to confront this anti social behaviour - someone from the CRT did and was seriously hurt. So the perpetrators continue, unchallenged. As for the graffiti - where is the respect for other people's property?

However, we also walk 2 dogs - they are harmless and always under control. We clear up their mess too. One or two people I know do not like dogs, paranoid about them even. Do I spoil their day out by walking our dogs? When we see these people, we put our dogs on a close lead respecting the environment and other people.

[Ex Brummie]

2 hours ago, wandering snail said:

Blue bins to match the dog poo bins. 

Surely Red ones signified an element of hazard, stood out against any background. But then, some  jobsworth has to attempt to justify his non job.

[Athy]

On 31/08/2022 at 19:33, Goliath said:

“Thick Lizzie” is a new one to me

 

Actually "Thick Lizzy". Someone made up a graphic of Mrs. Truss toting an electric guitar and emblazoned it with a variation on the graphics of an L.P. by '70s Irish rock band Thin Lizzy.

    It's a rather unfair nickname, if a witty one: you don't get a degree from Oxford University by being thick.

Edited September 2, 2022 by Athy

[Allan(nb Albert)]

12 hours ago, wandering snail said:

Blue bins to match the dog poo bins. 

"Making life better by water" is superfluous. "Canal & River Trust - CLEAN IT UP" would be better.

Relevant to the O/P, CRT issued a press release yesterday claiming that a study which it part funded and authored (Graeme Reeves and Jenny Shepherd) showed that "the blend of blue and green space at former industrial canals helps boost your mood". 

 

Press release - https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/media/original/46651-going-with-the-flow-study-shows-the-blend-of-blue-and-green-space-at-former-industrial-canals-helps-boost-your-mood.pdf

No direct link was provided to the study but here it is anyway - https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0271306

[Athy]

7 minutes ago, Allan(nb Albert) said:

 "the blend of blue and green space at former industrial canals helps boost your mood". 

 

 

There is something in that: would we find the countryside as relaxing if all the grass and trees were bright orange?

 

(Though for some people they may appear so, depending on which recreational substances they take with them on their country walk).

[Victor Vectis]

10 minutes ago, Athy said:

Actually "Thick Lizzy". Someone made up a graphic of Mrs. Truss toting an electric guitar and emblazoned it with a variation on the graphics of an L.P. by '70s Irish rock band Thin Lizzy.

    It's a rather unfair nickname, if a witty one: you don't get a degree from Oxford University by being thick.

Wot!

Even if you are a conservative?

[Jen-in-Wellies]

On 31/08/2022 at 17:41, Midnight said:

Cruising down the Avon from Stratford when it occurred to me that there is not one sign telling it's 'better by water' or suggesting I will feel better by visiting the riverside. Yet lots of folks walking, fishing and relaxing by the river. It boils my p1ss to see CRT spending tons of money on Facebook adverts, blue signs and the like promoting a visit to a canal when the system is in terminal decay. How come the Avon Trust manage to keep all the locks in good condition - not one broken paddle. And this so called 'well being' initiative, how much funding does it actually bring into CRT's coffers?

It is great for the well being of the folk with the contract for making blue signs. Also for the makers of blue paint and for Facebook shareholders.

[1st ade]

10 hours ago, SLC said:

Noting the blue dog pooh bin, it is not clear to me if you can use the bin for other rubbish such as alcohol cans.

Assuming SLC is referring to the first post of a "litter bin" this is where the fun starts: -

• "Local Authorities" (in our case Milton Keynes) provide litter bins - they do so where litter is expected (near takeaways, picnic benches etc) which means...
• "Town Councils" provide Poo Bins where people walk dogs (and fill in the gaps)
• But if people fill Poo Bins with beer cans then there is no room for Poo - so it gets left on the ground

By way of example - in my ward (not Parish) we have 14 Poo bins spread fairly evenly - we have about 20 Litter bins but 12 of them are in one place, a Square with a number of restaurants and takeaways...

 

If you go to the wider Parish we have 78 Poo bins - not a lot more litter bins as the other Wards do not include so many shops and takeaways

 

Less than a mile from home is a car park by the river - it has no litter bins and one Poo Bin - guess what... The Poo Bin is full of chip papers and beer cans...

[Athy]

11 minutes ago, 1st ade said:

 

 

Less than a mile from home is a car park by the river - it has no litter bins and one Poo Bin - guess what... The Poo Bin is full of chip papers and beer cans...

...and, doubtless, dogs looking quizzically at them and thinking "I don't remember eating those".