Canal cleanups (continued in the Hemmel Hempsted thread)

[magnetman]

Just wondering if anybody is organising, or interested in organising, a canal cleanup day anywhere on the Grand Union south of Braunston?

 

By 'canal cleanup' I mean grappling irons and kebs to get old trolleys, bikes etc out of the cut.

 

edited the bit in red

Edited January 30, 2007 by magnetman

[Jon]

I'd be interested in taking part, though in all honesty I probably haven't got enough time to put into the organisation. Great idea though...

 

Jon

[Liam]

A quick question..

 

It'd be great if you lot did have a clear up down that way but what about all the stuff that you drag onto the bank. What are you going to be doing with it then?

 

It would be good to get BW involved. We provide the labour and they have to cover the cost of removal.

[magnetman]

A quick question..

 

It'd be great if you lot did have a clear up down that way but what about all the stuff that you drag onto the bank. What are you going to be doing with it then?

 

It would be good to get BW involved. We provide the labour and they have to cover the cost of removal.

 

Good point. Very expensive and there's an insurance situation going on too like health and safety and third party cover etc.

edit: And its toxic waste...

Edited January 30, 2007 by magnetman

[Bones]

Good point. Very expensive and there's an insurance situation going on too like health and safety and third party cover etc.

edit: And its toxic waste...

 

 

Do WRG do clearups? Might be worth contacting them to see whether they do?

[Liam]

I think they do. I'm sure I've seem then in the waterways press doing clearups.

 

http://www.wrg.org.uk/

[gaggle]

each trip out of my moorings going towards wigan i have to pass a bw skip, i will always try and take something out of the water and my way to the skip, it could be a bin bag of rubbish i see floating along or an old car tyre. if i seen a shopping trolley i would hook that up and take that, every bit taken out and away helps a bit.

next time i go through netherton/ bootle i will make it my biz to remove some trolleys and take them to bw barge or waste yard down that way.

[Jon]

The WRG then to plan out things well in advace, so you wouldn't necessarily be able to do that until next year...

 

Jon

[tomsk]

each trip out of my moorings going towards wigan i have to pass a bw skip, i will always try and take something out of the water and my way to the skip, it could be a bin bag of rubbish i see floating along or an old car tyre. if i seen a shopping trolley i would hook that up and take that, every bit taken out and away helps a bit.

next time i go through netherton/ bootle i will make it my biz to remove some trolleys and take them to bw barge or waste yard down that way.

 

Good show Gaggle, if everyone did likewise at least a proportion of unwanted canal clutter would be cleared

[Barry]

Good point. Very expensive and there's an insurance situation going on too like health and safety and third party cover etc.

edit: And its toxic waste...

 

I once organised the clear up of a section of a lake that I know

 

I persuaded a local skip hire company to provide a skip on the basis that I would invite the press so the skip hire people got free advertising and positive press

 

I agree that the problem now would be how to comply with health and safety legislation

 

The risk assessment would not be too difficult but I think you would need permission from BW and they might provide the health and safety advice as well

[alan_fincher]

BW have done a "Towpath Tidy" week for the past year or two.

 

Link to BW 2006 Towpath Tidy

 

In view of the pressures on them, I don't know if they'll have anything planned this year though ?

 

On the GU in the Milton Keynes area, we witnessed a couple of private boats, but with BW mud-hoppers and work-flats in tow, taking serious amounts of rubbish out of the cut. So obviously someone relaxed health and safety red tape enough to let non BW people use BW's (admittedly unpoweed) boats, in that case.

 

Up there this did appear as more than just a publicity exercise.

 

There were also BW office staff painting up various signs and railings at "Three Locks", although when we came back quite a few days later, there were still lots of things there that needed a lick of paint rather more!

 

Alan

 

Edited to say.... ".... and when did anybody last see Eugene on the forum ?

Edited January 30, 2007 by alan_fincher

[Jon]

It would be a shame if red tape stopped something like this from happening though...

 

Perhaps contacting BW to see where they stand would be a way forward?

 

Jon

[Barry]

It would be a shame if red tape stopped something like this from happening though...

 

Perhaps contacting BW to see where they stand would be a way forward?

 

Jon

 

I agree - as I understand the canals are BW's place of work so they have a duty of care for anyone undertaking work in their sphere.

 

By now they should have got to grips with health and Safety legislation and practise so it shouldn't be too difficult to extend their existing safe systems of work to volunteer workers

 

Got to be worth an ask

[Hairy-Neil]

It would be a shame if red tape stopped something like this from happening though...

 

There was a time when BW sent solicitors letters to a canal society doing clearance work for "trespassing" on BW property. The society replied....lots of people trespass on the waterways, many of them comitting acts of vandalism whereas we are actually making improvements......

 

The Cheshire Ring survives today, probably as a direct result of their trespassing......

 

 

 

 

Later, it was the BW staff unions that put the kibosh on volunteer clearance work.

[fender]

Later, it was the BW staff unions that put the kibosh on volunteer clearance work.

 

Yes indeed, I agree, most of us canal pioneers were stuck for want of things to do in the 1970's due to these idiots!

[magnetman]

Well, I'll start a poll to see how many people might be interested in taking part in a canal clearance day sometime in late April this year, specifically located at Hemel Hempstead between Boxmoor lock (cricket club) and the Lime Juice works (B&Q for people living in the 21st century). I know this is a bad section for trolleys, bikes and roadworks equipment.

 

If there is reasonable interest I will approach BW with regards to borrowing one of their barges as a skip. I have a short workboat which can be used to aid the removal of heavier items and transport them to said skip.

[Jon]

Since we now have another topic running on this, and to save confusion, I'll close this one and link to the other one.

 

Go to http://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=7174