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The restoration of the Montgomery


Caprifool

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I might have been looking in the wrong places. But I can not find any estimated date for the restorations of the Montgomery, reconnecting Welshpool to the rest of the waterways. Only that the restoration has started......

 

Is there a more detailed restoration plan out there to look at, somewhere?

 

Thank you.

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Yes but don't be surprised if even getting to the border takes a good few years let alone going to Welshpool. I forget how many hundred thousands the last great plan cost but even when restored this one implies that boating will not be made a top priority and some of the ideas make it almost impossible - which is what a lot of persons want.

 

Originally the canal would have opened complete before 2,000 but a certain Peter Walker refused to release money promised by Europe to match funding with local councils for a fast track, fully open with unlimited passage through Frankton restoration - this being long before BW had Eco officers, would have installed back pumps if needed and were actually pro-restoring with their men doing it in places even though such work was not allowed on a remainder waterway. But Dear Peter wanted votes in Cardiff and demanded the money for there so Europe said no and he did not get his money and we did not get our canal.

 

Since then apart from the beloved Haskins progress has been slow and is not lightly to get quicker given official attitudes whatever they spout in public.

 

But plans there have been in numbers. One that BW commisioned a few years back included an artificial horse pulling a boat to show how it use to be among many jems.

 

As to Steven Lees plan (done around 2000 before he became a full time BW employee) I am blowed if I can find it though there are at least to multi page plans since concerning archeology and canal depth contour.

Edited by Tiny
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Yes but don't be surprised if even getting to the border takes a good few years let alone going to Welshpool. I forget how many hundred thousands the plan cost but even when restored it implies that boating will not be made a top priority and some of the ideas make it almost impossible - which is what a lot of persons want.

 

Originally the canal would have opened complete before 2,000 but a certain Peter Walker refused to release money promised by Europe to match funding with local councils for a fast fully open with unlimited passage through Frankton restoration - this being long before BW had Eco officers and they were actually pro-restoring and were doing it in places. But Dear Peter wanted votes in Cardiff and demanded the money for there so Europe said no and he did not get his money and we did not get our canal.

 

Since then apart from the beloved Haskins progress has been slow and is not lightly to get quicker given official attitudes.

 

But plans there have been in numbers. One that BW commisioned included an artificial horse pulling a boat to show how it use to be among many jems.

 

BW are not the enemy, Natural England are.

 

Your observations about former Secretary of State For Wales Peter Walker are totally spot on, but since then the presence of a national boundary has complicated things, with both the Welsh Development Agency and English Partnerships worrying about spending their money for benefits "across the border", and Natural England and their predecessors have taken an anti-navigation stance so irrational that it makes one wonder if their collective spouses are having regular affairs with narrow boat owners. English Nature even managed to declare part of the canal a SSSI on the basis of a species that was later found never to have been present.

 

The horse idea came about because Natural England stipulated no more than 500 powered boat movements a year for one short stretch, but didn't state a limit on how many non-powered boat movements. I know the BW officer who proposed towing boats through this bit with a horse and he basically wanted to make NE look silly.

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I'm not all that old, but I remember when I was young and I used to play below Frankton Locks in the dry canal bed. At the time my Dad was told that restoration was about to begin and that it would only take a few years. Now I don't think i'll even be around long enough to chug to Welshpool, it's going so slowly.

Gary

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BW are not the enemy, Natural England are.

 

Your observations about former Secretary of State For Wales Peter Walker are totally spot on, but since then the presence of a national boundary has complicated things, with both the Welsh Development Agency and English Partnerships worrying about spending their money for benefits "across the border", and Natural England and their predecessors have taken an anti-navigation stance so irrational that it makes one wonder if their collective spouses are having regular affairs with narrow boat owners. English Nature even managed to declare part of the canal a SSSI on the basis of a species that was later found never to have been present.

 

The horse idea came about because Natural England stipulated no more than 500 powered boat movements a year for one short stretch, but didn't state a limit on how many non-powered boat movements. I know the BW officer who proposed towing boats through this bit with a horse and he basically wanted to make NE look silly.

 

I think the seniors of BW and NE dance rather well together. Look at the famous 'now you see it, now you don't SSSI at Maesbury.

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When will it be finished? I suppose the cheeky answer is "sooner, if you help" :P

There is about 4 miles of dry section between the current northern wet bit (at Redwith Bridge) and the northern end of the middle wet bit (at Llanymynech). The quarter-mile section at the north end of this is being worked on by volunteers from Shropshire Union Canal Society. This section was started about 2.5 years ago, and probably has a year or two to go. If you were to extrapolate that, you'd get about 64 years! Of course it's not that simple, and the honest answer is that no-one knows, because each section seems to be being considered individually at the moment. There are so many interested parties that the politics behind it all makes it very confusing!

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So foreign forums must run along the lines of....

 

OP: "Could someone tell me when the Monty resto will be complete?"

 

2nd Poster: "I don't know."

 

OP: "Okay, thank you!"

 

<New Topic>

Edited by carlt
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I was afraid I was going to get answers like this. And you all brought your soap boxes. How very british :rolleyes:

 

You got a straight answer to your question, or at least as straight as possible given that there is no estimated date, accompanied by some explanations as to why the plans have been many and the dates have been fluid. That's about as good as it gets; I can't imagine what else you were expecting from a Discussion Forum.

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You got a straight answer to your question, or at least as straight as possible given that there is no estimated date, accompanied by some explanations as to why the plans have been many and the dates have been fluid. That's about as good as it gets; I can't imagine what else you were expecting from a Discussion Forum.

And I even added a little personal storey to add to the answer :rolleyes:

Gary

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:banghead:

 

A good update if you ask me.

 

Thing is as soon as you start asking about dates when it will be finished - there are none - then the next best reply is to explin the politics of *why* there are no definate completion dates!

Edited by bag 'o' bones
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While my initial reply may have appeared a touch flippant, I often think it's the only accurate answer I can give!

There is no single document or plan that I've seen that has all the answers, and when you speak to people involved in the restoration, they don't know either.

Have a look at http://www.britishwaterways.co.uk/media/documents/Monty_Canal_Conservation_Management_Strategy.pdf - that's probably the most official document I've seen about the restoration plan. If you look back in time though, you'll find plenty of examples of people giving estimates for completion. They've all passed. If anyone claimed that they could give me a completion date, I wouldn't believe them.

Other things to look at:

http://www.britishwaterways.co.uk/media/documents/Monty_Canal_Regeneration_Summary_Document.pdf

http://www.britishwaterways.co.uk/media/documents/Monty_Community_consultation.pdf

http://www.britishwaterways.co.uk/media/documents/Monty_Assessment.pdf

http://www.britishwaterways.co.uk/media/documents/Monty_Details.pdf

http://www.britishwaterways.co.uk/media/documents/Monty_Landscape_Archaeology_Assessment.pdf

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I thought his comment was gently humourous in its accuracy, and not meant to be offensive.

 

And he does have nice socks.

 

Probably explains why such a lot of mis-understandings happen on here, I read it in the same way as Tiny...

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While my initial reply may have appeared a touch flippant, I often think it's the only accurate answer I can give!

There is no single document or plan that I've seen that has all the answers, and when you speak to people involved in the restoration, they don't know either.

Have a look at http://www.britishwaterways.co.uk/media/documents/Monty_Canal_Conservation_Management_Strategy.pdf - that's probably the most official document I've seen about the restoration plan. If you look back in time though, you'll find plenty of examples of people giving estimates for completion. They've all passed. If anyone claimed that they could give me a completion date, I wouldn't believe them.

Other things to look at:

http://www.britishwaterways.co.uk/media/documents/Monty_Canal_Regeneration_Summary_Document.pdf

http://www.britishwaterways.co.uk/media/documents/Monty_Community_consultation.pdf

http://www.britishwaterways.co.uk/media/documents/Monty_Assessment.pdf

http://www.britishwaterways.co.uk/media/documents/Monty_Details.pdf

http://www.britishwaterways.co.uk/media/documents/Monty_Landscape_Archaeology_Assessment.pdf

 

Any sign of Mr Lees original plan done before he was employed by BW full time?

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