News update November 2009

It is now just over six months since we launched the campaign at the Middlewich Folk & Boat Show. Since then, we have made considerable progress.

Thanks to a campaign of distributing leaflets to members, boaters and the public attending boat shows and via the web site, we now have over 640 signatures on the campaign data base. The greatest single number was as a result of the efforts of the Trent & Mersey Canal Society Team at the IWA National Festival at Redhill on the River Soar, where 296 people signed the petition asking for the locks to be reopened.

All in all, we have now distributed about 8,000 leaflets, so we have achieved a high profile for the cause. The number of signatures represents an 8% return. This is a very good result and shows that people care enough to respond. Similar campaigns think they are doing well to get a 2% response. In part, this is due to the personal explanations given to boaters and the public, and it is also thanks to a good press campaign which achieved publicity in all major canal magazines and the “Towpath Talk” paper. Each time something appeared, it was noticeable that there was a surge in activity on the web-site. This means that support has come from far and wide across the UK – and even some from abroad.

We have maintained an ongoing dialogue with local BW managers Julie Sharman and David Baldacchino. Through our interest in the flight, we believe we have influenced the reopening of Lock 66 at the bottom of the Wheelock flight. We also think that BW will find it harder to leave locks unrepaired, so we wait with interest to see what they propose to do about lock 63, which was recently closed due to concerns about the safety of one of the chamber walls.

Thanks to our close working with BW, I was invited to attend the BW Board dinner, held the night after they had visited Haley Waterside, to see what has been achieved locally. This gave me the opportunity to raise our profile with board members: each had a copy of our leaflet and I was able to make an appeal for further support for our local managers in funding current repairs. Specifically, I pointed out that Lock 47 was closed by Brian Haskins in 1974, so I expressed the hope that it would not be another 35 years before lock 63 is repaired.

As a result of filling in the questionnaire on the web-site, some 38 people have offered practical help in some form, whether being the contact for a boat club or marina or being willing to take part in a working party when we reach the time for that. A further 88 people have made specific comments about the flight and its condition – this provides very good evidence which we can submit in due course to funding bodies. We also pass on immediately anything that indicates an operational problem to British Waterways. From these comments, we get a real insight to what different people make of the current situation. This ranges from lengthy diatribes against BW to constructive suggestions for improvements or simply words of appreciation for the campaign and the beauty of the experience of boating down the flight notwisthstanding the difficulties. The difficulties themselves range from little or no problems to finding nearly all the paddles hard to wind and gates hard to open. All boating life is there! Here are some examples:

“We think this is a very good project. Being based on the Macclesfield canal, we use the Cheshire flights on most of our journeys. Also, being a little passed 60 we do find it takes a lot of energy to work a lot of the locks, either the paddles, beams for the gates or in many cases, both. It certainly works up an appetite, but also tends to slow down the journey as we cannot cover quite as many locks in a session. And it would certainly ease the congestion at locks in the busy period if all the doubles were back in use.”

“We reckon about a third of the locks either had stiff paddles or hard-to-open gates; we helped a couple of people open paddles on the way. We cannot really comment on the towpath other than to say that where we have used it, it has generally been OK - reasonably firm underfoot and not particularly muddy. I'm sure walkers would appreciate more seats and site maps and information, but boaters are pretty well served by Nicholsons and the other waterways guides.”

“As the owner of a 70ft boat it is vital that the pairs where one of the locks is short are fully opened - it is incredibly inconvenient to have to wait until a BW employee is able to come and open up the longer locks. If these longer ones become inoperable then the T&M would become a no go area for full length boats. Also some of the locks (Rumps for example) are narrower than 7ft or have bulges which mean we have to flush our boat in and out.”

“When we descended the flight in late June, 2 of the duplicate locks were closed for new gates to be installed which is good news if it makes them easier to operate. But it did mean that there were delays in passing through these areas, making the flight more like the usual single locked ones, and made us appreciate the value of having a choice of two locks to use, especially in the busy summer season. “

“We travelled through this Spring and were sorry to see the sad state of some of the locks, although BW did appear to be working on repairing some. It makes such a difference having two working locks side by side. Apart from allowing boats to pass you can also help each in working the locks, particularly where people are single handed.”

“The Cheshire Locks are part of our heritage and should be preserved and brought back into full working order.”

“I used the flight three times in May/June. I did not find any of the locks particularly difficult to use.”

“They should be restored so that everyone can enjoy them and appreciate history.”

We have begun to make progress in other directions. Following Mike Palmer’s visit earlier in the year, we are making plans for WRG to hold a camp in the area next April to carry out chamber clearance on Churches Lock. This will probably be combined with some exploratory excavations on the Burslem Port site.

The search for funding has also begun. With the help of Nicola Lewis-Smith, BW’s external funding officer, we have initiated a dialogue with the Heritage Lottery Fund and have agreed the broad scope of a canal corridor project which we hope will in due course attract funding from this source. Once we have identified a funding source, BW director Simon Salem is keen to co-operate with us in a joint funding campaign, similar to that undertaken to raise money to reopen Anderton Lift some time ago.

To do this, we will need to have the active support of local communities and authorities, as well as the boaters and towpath users. We have started to contact local communities and parish councillors. The next stage is to work up contact with the newly-created unitary authority, Cheshire East. Its predecessors have a good record of partnership with the Macclesfield Canal Society which achieved a number of improvements on that waterway in the last four years. We look forward to a similar partnership with them in the future, and we will actively campaign for the support of candidates when the next general election comes along..

We understand the present funding difficulties that British Waterways are experiencing, and that this makes commitment of large amounts of money difficult, but we are looking for deeds of support as well as words. Now that the BW reorganisation is complete, we look forward to working with those whose job it is to look after the flight in the same spirit of co-operation that we have enjoyed up till now.

Roger Savage.
November 2009.