Montgomery Canal Access

[Prof]

I'm afraid you're CORRECT in your assessment Allan! 

[AndrewIC]

14 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

The current "will" at C&RT appears by many to be to the benefit of the 'tree-huggers', 'newt-nudgers', & 'flora-fondlers' with any left over resources grudgingly spent on boaters requirements.

We went down the Montgomery at the very end of September. Very quiet and peaceful, excellent meal in the Navigation at Maesbury. One embarrassing moment where I mistook a winding hole for the main channel due to volume of reeds! There was a huge new wetland reserve under construction in the fields alongside Aston locks

[Prof]

Well Alan and Dave, if you think that things are bad on the Monty, come down my way and have a cruise on the recently restored Doritwich Canal, LOTS of hard work done rebuilding locks, bridges, and dredging, BUT only after vast new reed beds were created etc etc.

THEN the reeds grew back to the extent that there is now barely enough room for ONE boat down the middle! (baring in mind this is a wide canal for half it's length! PLUS the only moorings are at Droitwich, so you tend to find boats moored over night on the lock moorings, you can't even SEE the towpath for most of the canal; very annoying when trying to work through!

As you would say, the "tree hungers" etc have more say than the boaters!

EQUAL RIGHTS FOR BOATERS!! 

[ditchcrawler]

1 hour ago, Prof said:

Well Alan and Dave, if you think that things are bad on the Monty, come down my way and have a cruise on the recently restored Doritwich Canal, LOTS of hard work done rebuilding locks, bridges, and dredging, BUT only after vast new reed beds were created etc etc.

THEN the reeds grew back to the extent that there is now barely enough room for ONE boat down the middle! (baring in mind this is a wide canal for half it's length! PLUS the only moorings are at Droitwich, so you tend to find boats moored over night on the lock moorings, you can't even SEE the towpath for most of the canal; very annoying when trying to work through!

As you would say, the "tree hungers" etc have more say than the boaters!

EQUAL RIGHTS FOR BOATERS!! 

I have only done the Droitwich canal twice and thought there were some new mooring spots created last time we came through where the reeds had been cut right back to the bank. There are also very good moorings at the river end.

[Prof]

22 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

I have only done the Droitwich canal twice and thought there were some new mooring spots created last time we came through where the reeds had been cut right back to the bank. There are also very good moorings at the river end.

We'll Ditchcrawler, You're right there are good moorings 2 locks up from the river. We use them often, even when we are just passing up or down river. (Then reverse back down fthe 2 locks to the river)!

Having come down the Droitwich a couple of months ago, I failed to see any new moorings, the only places I saw the reeds cut back were where the fishermen had cut them in order to see the water!

It's a lovely canal and a great way to cut through to the Worcs. & Birmingham. The mooring basin in Droitwich is great, if you get there early enough to get a mooring; and I would recommend people to use it, but it could be so much better!

Edited January 23, 2018 by Prof
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[ditchcrawler]

2 minutes ago, Prof said:

 . The mooring basin in Droitwich is great, if you get there early enough to get a mooring; and I would recommend people to use it, but it could be so much better!

That is where we moored but canal side right through the park looked fine. the moorings were below and above salwarpe Bridge, about half way to the next bridges

[Prof]

You're right about the Droitwich moorings, just up from the basin but I can't recall seeing any at Salwape bridge, but you may be right, memory isn't what it use to be! 

[MartinC]

16 hours ago, Prof said:

 I obviously have a different opinion regarding how restored canals should be used, bearing in mind that much of the restoration is funded to a greater of lesser extent by BW/CaRT.

 

Without going too far off the direct topic, this does raises an interesting point. Who is funding the restoration?

I can find a previous contribution of £1m from the County Council, a Lottery grant, small financial contributions (shown on Charity Commission site) but lots of valuable voluntary work led by Shropshire Union Society and several other charities. Various other bodies have been set up but appear to be "talking shops" only, even the Prince of Wales has popped in and out.

CaRT, and BW before them, meet running costs but for their financial involvement in restoration see https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/refresh/media/thumbnail/28659-the-montgomery-canal-restoration-strategy.pdf. I am sure that somebody else has already discovered lots of benefactors and will let us know who they are!