K&A Waterways Partnership Chair stands down

Fleur de Rhe-Philipe:
Picture by Bob Naylor: WaterMarx©

Fleur de Rhe-Philipe who became the first Chair of the Kennet & Avon Waterways Partnership when it was created after the Canal & River Trust was formed in July last year has stood down.

Fleur de Rhe-Philipe says that she is giving up the role because of other commitments. She said: "I am a cabinet member on Wiltshire Council and you just cannot do both jobs. 

“I am very proud of the work the Partnership has done, not least helping the Canal & River Trust in its transition to the third sector. I know my colleagues on the Partnership have the passion and commitment to drive it forwards and establish a strong vision for how the local waterways will develop.

Roger Hanbury, head of governance services at the Canal & River Trust, said: “We are hugely grateful to Fleur for the work she has done to date, which has been crucial to the work of the Partnership while the Trust has gone through a period of major transition."

Waterways Charity admits its cruising rules are not legal

The Canal & River Trust (CRT) which manages waterways in England and Wales has admitted that the rules that it has required a sector of its boating customers to obey actually have no legal standing.

Canal & River Trust Head of 

Boating, Sally Ash

Picture by Bob Naylor: WaterMarx©

____________________________________

Continuous Cruisers (boaters with no home mooring) asked for clarification of the British Waterways (now CRT) rules being enforced — saying: “Why can’t you make it simpler and just tell us how far it is necessary to move? ” In a background paper for a meeting in Milton Keynes in November 2012, the CRT Head of Boating, Sally Ash said: “We would if we could but it’d be wrong and we’d be going beyond our powers. ‘Place’ can only be defined within a local context. That’s why we’re trying to develop local mooring plans in true cooperation with all sections of the boating community”.

In admitting that it cannot lawfully specify a minimum distance that boaters without home moorings must travel in order to comply with Section 17 3 c ii of the 1995 British Waterways Act, CRT are now returning to a definition that was given by the then Kennet & Avon Canal Waterway Manager, Ian Jarvis at a meeting in Bath in January 2005 attended by Bath MP Don Foster, representatives of Bath & North East Somerset Council, the West Kennet Boating Community and National Association of Boat Owners. The minutes of that meeting state: “regarding the Guidelines for Continuous Cruising it was confirmed that the guidance note suggested that a progressive journey was necessary. The boaters asked what was the realistic expectation for a progressive journey and Ian Jarvis confirmed that the requirement would be to move from one neighbourhood to another — and one definition of this would be to move from one parish to another.” The boater representatives at that meeting said that they were happy with the continuous cruiser guidance that had been reviewed by user groups — that it was good guidance — although it needed clarification.

  

In the background notes for the Milton Keynes meeting in November the CRT also said that it has dropped the enforcement target of putting all boats that travel less than 30km during their contract period into the enforcement process — stating that the target was unrealistic.

Panda Rainbow of the K&A Boating Community said: “There isn't much evidence of true co-operation with “all sections” of the boating community here on the K&A in the light of Sally Ash’s rubbishing of the views of the liveaboard boaters on the Local Mooring Strategy Steering Group and her unilateral termination of the steering group in late 2011 just as it was reaching a consensus.”

In the the briefing paper Sally Ash also conceded that the judgement in BW v Davies is not legally binding saying: “In making a judgement in the Davies case in 2010, a Bristol county court judge said that moving to and fro along a 10 mile stretch of the Kennet & Avon Canal did not amount to bona fide navigation. This is a steer but not legally binding for other areas”.  

Panda said: “Judgements made in a county court are not binding, even on another county court and this is a significant U-turn from Ms Ash’s original statement in a press release on 1 April 2011.  That press release said: ‘The decision of the Learned Judge in the case of British Waterways v Davies will be binding on lower courts (and District Judges) and persuasive on Circuit Judges throughout England and Wales.’ This vastly over-stated BW’s legal position; apart from anything else, there are no lower courts with jurisdiction to hear Section 8 cases.” she concluded.

At the meeting it was also admitted that overstaying on visitor moorings was not a problem caused by itinerant ‘liveaboard’ boaters — and that boaters with moorings were just as likely to disregard visitor mooring time limits.

You can read the CRT briefing document in full at:  

Milton Keynes November meeting briefing

The meeting in November took place between continuous cruisers; CRT Trustee John Dodwell; the CRT boating team and CRT enforcement staff. It was initiated by continuous cruiser Peter Macdonald following discussions with Mr Dodwell in which Mr Macdonald raised his concerns about the CRT Council briefing on Non-Compliant Continuous Cruising published in October 2012.

See:  http://kanda.boatingcommunity.org.uk/wordpress/generic-solutions-or-final-solutions-our-analysis-of-crts-briefing-paper-on-non-compliant-continuous-cruising/

K&A Canal ice skating... continued

The recent archive picture we ran of ice skating on the K&A in Devizes prompted a response from Dave Cleaver. His comments referred to a story we ran last winter — of a lone skater on the same pound.  Dave said: "I'm not sure if we are talking about the same year but sometime in the mid or late 1970s BWB had an excavator on that pound to break the ice to prevent the skaters enjoying themselves".

The picture was taken by me after I moved to the South West in 1980 after working in Derbyshire and South Yorkshire — where we used to have 'real' snow. So the picture would have been taken in the early 1980s. 

Dick Van Klavren skating on the K&A Canal in Devizes in the 1980s: Picture by Bob Naylor©

Dutchman, Dick Van Klavren, who ran the Pygmy Pinetum nursery in Devizes at the time  had been skating on the canal for a couple of days when I took this picture which was published in a number of papers. It must have attracted the attention of British Waterways bosses because they brought in Devizes Cranes to smash up the ice.  

The boss of the company, Howard Hewitt, was at the controls when shortly after he had started smashing the ice the machine slid down the bank and into the canal and Howard had to jump to safety — getting a soaking in the process. The crane lay on its side in the water for some time before it was safe to recover it.

The machine had done enough damage to the ice to prevent anyone skating on that pound — but that wasn't going to stop Dick from practicing his speed skating.  Tony Adamson, who was the landlord of the Bridge Inn at Horton, said: "After BW smashed up his rink in Devizes, Dick was not thwarted and he would skate out on the canal from Devizes to the Bridge Inn at Horton where he would have a chat and glass of lemonade — and then skate back to town."

BWB had not always taken such a dramatic approach to people going onto the ice. Dave Cleaver who had worked for BWB said: "When I worked on the cut during a big freeze our ganger encouraged us to walk on the snow-covered ice rather than on the rough towpath (they were all rough then!) but we had to get off before any bridges because the ice was thinner there — and  we had to brush the ice and snow off the hedges before we could cut them. And for that we were paid only about £10 a week!”

Snow on the Caen Hill Flight on the K&A Canal

The Caen Hill Flight on the Kennet & Avon Canal in yesterday's snow storm

Picture by Bob Naylor©

Picture by Bob Naylor©

Ice skating on the K&A Canal

This picture from the archives was taken on the Kennet & Avon Canal on the Devizes Flight — below Prison Bridge, above Caen Hill... can anyone put a date to it? Below is a picture taken from the same spot during yesterday's snow storm.

Devizes Flight on the K&A Canal  above Caen Hill: Picture by Bob Naylor©

English champion of French waterways dies

Former President of Les Amis du Canal du Nivernais, Jo Parfitt died yesterday (10^th January 2013) after a battle with cancer.

A lock on the Sardy Flight on the Canal du Nivernais — and

Jo Parfitt: Picture by Bob Naylor©

Jo was the first English President of Les Amis du Canal du Nivernais (ACN) and he had run businesses on the Burgundy canals for several decades. There can be few boaters who have explored the inland waterways of France who will not know of Jo Parfitt, even if they have not benefited from his engineering skills or learned more of the Burgundy canals from his encyclopaedic knowledge of those waterways.

Jo came from a farming background but caught the bug of canal enthusiasm as an apprentice toolmaker in Enfield in the late 1960s.

He formed a canal society at the East Herts College of Further Education and by the 1970s he was spending his weekends excavating the locks on the Widcome Flight on the Kennet & Avon Canal in Bath, enjoying the local ale and — as he put it: “doing our bit to stop the local ladies becoming bored on a Saturday night”.

By 1977 Jo was running a company in Worcester building boats — including 15 for a hire base in France.

When the people who were to run the hire boats in France backed out, Jo and a French-speaking colleague stepped in and he moved to France to help run the fleet.

In 1980 Jo bought a Dutch barge (complete with a 100-Hp crane on the deck) to live, work and travel the canals and he started repairing passing boats when the hire boats were out.

Jo spent 18 months in Corbigny and 10 years in Mailly La Ville before moving to Migennes. 

After selling his business at Migennes and ‘retiring’ in 2010, Jo continued to carry out boat surveys, was establishing his general engineering business based near Clamecy and he also moved into technical journalism, writing a monthly column for the French waterways magazine, Fluvial.

Jo was a founder member of Les Amis du Canal du Nivernais (ACN) when it was set up in 1989 to promote the canal and to make it more accessible to as many people as possible without damaging its beauty and the tranquility of the countryside through which it passes.

Jo, prompted by the then ACN President Philippe Benard, looked for a canal in England to twin with. It was clear to him that the very canal that he had volunteered on as a young man, the K&A, was the most suitable.

The two canals have similar geographic and geological features — they both have 16-lock flights (at Sardy and Devizes), they both link two major rivers,  they both have tunnels and similar geological problems. Jo met with the K&A Canal Trust’s Hon Engineer Mike Lee and as a consequence of that meeting the first twinning trip took place in 1991 when Jo brought a party of 20 to the K&A.

Jo was passionate about the potential benefits of twinning. “it gives us a card to play that catches the eye of politicians and local authorities. We can show people here in France what’s being achieved abroad. In my opinion it will take European involvement to save the small central canals in France and for this we need our twinning links. There is also much more that can be achieved on the cultural front, with exchanges and projects between communities and schools.”  

Jo believed that ACN and KACT were the first canal associations to twin.  Since then others have followed. Jo’s influence prompted other French waterways to twin, including the canal D’Orleans, which is twinned with the Basingstoke (instigated by information on how to go about it from ACN), the Nantes à Brest is twinned with the Wilts & Berks and the Canal du Berry (ARICAB) has twinned with The Cotswolds Canals.

Since twinning with the K&A, Jo championed linking the Nivernais with other European waterways, including the Royal Canal in Ireland through their Amenity Group, and with the Dutch Barge Association.

Jo became President of ACN in 2008, four decades after he first caught the canal bug on the K&A Canal in England and he always remained passionate about the potential of inland waterways for recreation and employment.

Whilst he was President, ACN joined with six other French canals to form l’Entente des Canaux du Centre-France (Canal du Berry, Canal de Bourgogne, Canal de Briare, Canal lateral a la Loire, Canal d’Orleans, Canal du Centre et Canal du Nivernais) to encourage tourism and strengthen their voice in negotiations.

Jo said “United we stand, divided we fall!  It is good to have the support of the other groups and it is helpful that we can share the cost of exhibiting at the major waterways events such as Paque Boat in St Jean de Losne. And it gives us greater access to local & national politicians.”

 In 2009, his last year as President of Les Amis, Jo nominated K&A Canal Trust Hon Engineer Mike Lee to be invested as a Chevalier into the ancient French wine-makers’ society Le Confrérie des Chevaliers des Trois Ceps at the end of the two-day Fête Nautique in Vincelles to honour his involvement  in the twinning association, saying: “it needs to be now, you never know what the future may bring”. How prophetic those words were and how typical of Jo that he ensured that public recognition was given where deserved.

"No canal, no tourists — no tourists, no canal" 

Jo’s presidency of Les Amis ended in 2010, but his passion for promoting the Canal du Nivernais continued. He said: “The Nivernais, like any other canal, is an amenity for walkers, cyclists and anyone visiting the area interested in history, architecture, wildlife, botany and fishing. The canal makes a linear park that anyone passing can step into for a picnic if nothing else — and sit and watch boats go by.

“The canal supports employment in many forms, it is an artery bringing essential tourists to an area with only agriculture and forestry and a small amount of industry. Tourism is absolutely vital to the Nivernais. “No canal, no tourists!” says Jo, “but equally important, no tourists, no canal”.

Jo has left a legacy on the canals in central France that is being continued by his friends and colleague at ACN.

Comments:
MERCI, très grand MERCI pour ce splendide article et surtout d'avoir fait le voyage à Auxerre... Di & Bob, nous sommes fiers d'avoir d'aussi bons amis...toute l'équipe de l'ACN vous embrasse et souhaite vous revoir bientôt. 
Philippe


The French inland waterways magazine, Fluvial, marks Jo's passing...

English Translation: 
Jo Parfitt embarked on the morning of 10 January 2013 for a very long trip and we, on the dock, are left sad and shivering. It seems that he took his toolbox in one hand and, with a turn, he gave us a wink. Noah's Ark was in need a serious check-up ... But, his family, Doret, and his friends are now alone.

As soon as Jo received his ten fingers, he dismantled anything that's operation he wanted to understand.  Later, as a qualified mechanic, he set his sights on the boats, as so often have the poets and free men. In France, he created the shipyard Migennes and designed, fitted out, repaired countless boats. He was also a co-founder and one of the presidents of Les Amis du Canal du Nivernais, with the goal of saving the canal he loved.

He loved to share his knowledge and his dreams and launched, two years ago and with the blessing of Fluvial magazine, a technical column, now an orphan.

Many today feel alongside his two sons Matthew and Sam.

Sad times ...

Lottery boost for UK’s fastest declining mammal

Water voles, said to be the UK’s fastest declining mammal, are to get a  £25,000 boost from People’s Postcode Lottery (PPL) to finance a fundraising appeal launched by the Canal & River Trust (CRT) earlier this year.

Water vole: Picture by Canal & River Trust

The CRT, which manages 2,000 miles of waterways in England & Wales, launched a public appeal to raise money to help one of the waterways best known mammals along the Leeds & Liverpool Canal in July. 

Now, following PPL’s support, a small team of volunteers from the CRT and the Lancashire Wildlife Trust will be going out on the towpath to survey a 13km stretch of the Rufford Branch of the canal between Tarleton and Burscough to identify where support is needed.

Once common and widespread, water vole populations have declined in recent years largely as a result of habitat loss and predation by mink. They are now a protected species and although still found in and around the waterways, most vole colonies have become small and isolated with their UK population falling by 95% since the 1970s. 

Stephen Leigh, Canal & River Trust ecologist, said: “We surveyed this area in 2008 for water voles and found that they were living along the canal but their colonies were isolated by the varied landscape of the canal banks. We need to update this survey so we can then plan where we need to soften the engineered canal banks and plant them with vegetation to connect up any existing water vole areas to enable them to thrive along the water corridor. 

“Water vole populations have rapidly declined in recent years, largely as a result of habitat loss and predation by mink. This support from the People’s Postcode Lottery makes a massive difference as we can extend the water voles territory, enhance the area where they live and play our part in conserving and restoring their populations.” 

Following the survey work, more volunteers will be needed to help carry out the habitat enhancements which are vital to provide food and shelter for these furry creatures and to provide a green corridor to enable them to disperse.

Missing Wiltshire publican may have jumped from ferry say police

Missing Wiltshire publican

Malcom Levesconte

Police searching for Malcolm Levesconte, landlord of the Royal Oak at Shrewton who disappeared along with almost £30,000 of customers' Christmas savings say that it possible that he jumped from a ferry bound for France.  

Wiltshire Police say that boarded a ferry to St Malo in Brittany on December 9th but they cannot be sure that he arrived in France.

Det Sgt Mike Standing said: "We are continuing to treat Malcolm Levesconte's disappearance as a missing person inquiry but at this stage we do have to accept there is a possibility that he did not make it to France and may have taken his own life by jumping into the sea,”

Anyone with information about Mr Levesconte’s whereabouts should call 101.

Lack of openness in running of charities deters potential donors says survey

Charities are complaining of falling donations — and recent research shows that a lack of transparency in the running of charities, a perception that too little money actually going to the cause and too much money going on staff salaries are making people less likely to give.

A survey by not-for-profit sector consultancy nfpSynergy prompted Joe Saxton, its Driver of Ideas, to comment “We recently called for an easy way to find out how much of their income charities spend on what they’re fighting and campaigning for. If charities want to increase donations and maintain the donors they already have, action should be taken - and quickly.

“The evidence is clear; people want to know how their donations are spent. Charities should sing from the rooftops about how they spend their money. It’s time the sector stopped huffing and puffing and bit the bullet”.

The poll found that 61% of people said that too little money going to the cause was stopping donating... the third-year-running that this has been the top choice.

Half of people questioned would be put off by “not being clear how donations are spent”, while 47% said they would hold back their donation if “too much was spent on staff salaries.”

The research, based on a survey of 1031 British adults, also revealed that the method of fundraising also features prominently in people’s reluctance to give. Nearly half (43%) said they wouldn’t want to donate if fundraisers were “too persistent” and a third (34%) keep hold of their money if fundraising methods are “too intrusive”.

The study also shows a split in whether people think charities should save for the future. Just over half (51%) thought charities should spend as much of their donation as possible on this year’s need, but 43% were happy to see more spent on fundraising if it would increase future income.

Source

www.nfpsynergy.net

Boat Safety Scheme changes mean boat owner must be present for the examination

The Nationwide Alliance of Boat Surveyors & Examiners (NABSE) warn that changes to the Boat Safety Scheme (BSS) that come into force on January 1st, 2013 may take some boat owners by surprise.

Although boat owners who are members of NABO, RBOA, RYA, TBA and the IWA may have been informed of changes to the BSS by their representatives on the Boat Safety Scheme Advisory Committee, other boat owners may not be aware that they will now have to be present at the examination — or arrange to have a representative there.

Graham Freeman, Chairman of NABSE said: “Despite the fact that a large proportion of the changes to the Examination Checking Procedures are editorial, boat owners should be aware that new checks will require them, or a representative, be present at the time of the examination.”

New checks are:

Shore Power / Alternative Sources of Power

If shore power is connected to the craft, the boat owner (or his/her representative) will be asked by their BSS Examiner to disconnect the shore lead and/or isolate generators and/or inverters to create a safe environment for the Examiner to carry out the newly introduced 230v ac related checks. While the new checks relating to 230v ac systems are ‘Advisory’, any non-compliances noted at the time of the examination may result in the award of a Warning Notice — which could be of interest to the Craft’s Insurer.

Gas Locker/s

If the craft has a gas locker/lockers, the Examiner will require access to the whole of the locker bottom to ensure that there is no path for leaked LPG to enter the interior of the craft. If full visibility of the bottom of the gas locker/s is not possible, the boat owner or representative will be requested to disconnect and remove gas bottles to enable this check to be carried out — and refit and reconnect them after completing the check. If the Examiner is unable to complete this check (due to non-availability of the owner/representative and/or obstructed visibility of the locker floor), the BSS Examination Record will be annotated “Not Verified” and a subsequent visit will have to be booked before a BSS Certificate can be awarded.

In preparation for these changes, all BSS Examiners have attended training seminars to ensure consistent application of the new checks from 1 January 2013 and boat owners are advised to visit the BSS website: www.boatsafetyscheme.org/about-us/news-from-the-bss/ecp-review-2012  for more information about these changes and how they may affect their preparation for their next BSS Examination.

NABSE’s submission to the consultation in August can be found at Item 12 on their newsletter page at: www.nabse.co.uk/Pages/NewsLetter.aspx

We have received this response to a tweet about this story...

Police hunt for Wiltshire publican moves to France after pub Christmas cash goes missing

Missing landlord, Malcolm Levesconte, 59, 

of the Royal Oak at Shrewton

Police are searching for a Wiltshire publican following the disappearance of a Christmas savings club thought to be worth more than £30,000.

Malcolm Levesconte, 59, landlord of the Royal Oak at Shrewton was last seen boarding the ferry at Portsmouth on Sunday evening bound for St Malo in Brittany.

Police say that at this stage they are treating this as a criminal investigation — and also as a missing person enquiry.

Anyone with information about the whereabouts of Mr Levesconte is asked to contact Salisbury CID on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 where information can be left anonymously.

Failed canalside community pub to re-open with new tenants

The Barge Inn at Honeystreet. Picture by Bob Naylor: WaterMarx©

The Barge Inn at Honeystreet on the Kennet & Avon Canal that had been run by the Barge Inn Community Project since August 2010 using a hand-out of £430,000 from the Big Lottery Fund suddenly shut its doors and sacked all its staff recently following successive years of trading losses.

Their Chairman, John Brewin admitted to the local paper that they had not registered for VAT saying: "We did try to register for VAT but we had the most awful problems." He did not deny rumours that the VAT debt was more than £100,000.  

The pub's owner, Ian McIver, says that new tenants have been appointed and the pub will re-open its doors on Friday December 14th.

Read: Canalside Community pub calls last orders

K&A Canal chosen by national charity for boating holidays for people with disabilities

The Disabled Afloat Riverboats Trust (DART) are working with the Bruce Trust based at Great Bedwyn on the Kennet & Avon Canal to make boating holidays possible for more people with disabilities.

A Bruce Trust holiday boat passes Pewsey Wharf on the Kennet & Avon Canal. Picture by Bob Naylor: WaterMarx©

The Bruce Trust is well known for organising holidays for people with disabilities and their carers on their purpose built wide beam boats — but their boats must have a minimum of three experienced and non-disabled adults on them. And they provide training for groups who need it before the start of each season.

Unfortunately this means disabled people who are not part of a group cannot take a holiday with them — which is where the Disabled Afloat Riverboats Trust (DART) come in.

They have been working with the Bruce Trust for many years and they hire boats from them and fill them with people who are unable unable to find a group to bring them on a holiday.

Rebecca Bruce of the Bruce Trust said: "It's brilliant as it means individuals don't have to miss out on a holiday just because they cannot get a big enough group of family or carers together and also enables them to mix with other individuals which they thoroughly enjoy." 

If you have not been on a canal boat before then why not look at their programme of holidays. Paul Treble of DART said: "The trust welcomes anyone who would like to come. The difference is that if you have a special need DART can cater for it and allow you to participate as much or as little as you fancy in the activities on offer."

Paul said: "DART passengers travel in comfort on a wide beam boat visiting local towns such as Hungerford, Pewsey and Bath and guests are welcome to take part in activities such as steering the boat, operating locks and helping with shopping."

So, if you are disabled in any way, a carer or anyone else for that matter why not investigate what DART has to offer you as an individual or your family or small group of friends. All you have to do is book up and get to the base. After that just relax and let the DART crew look after the details of catering and activities. 

This year they have a choice of 13 holidays on offer ranging in length from three to seven days — and all based on the Kennet and Avon Canal. 

Contact DART 
Tel: 07778 842 358 or go to www.glosdart.co.uk.

Fact File

The Bruce Trust was formed in 1988 by Louise and David Bruce after they sold their chain of Firkin Pubs in London. 

They were keen to plough some of the proceeds into a project that would benefit the community and they had become intrigued by the possibility of offering self-catering holidays to disabled, disadvantaged or elderly people cruising on the Kennet & Avon Canal. 

After much research they initially put their own money into the project — and over the years have received many generous donations to the Trust which have enabled the fleet to be increased to four specially-designed, purpose-built, wide-beam canal boats.

The extra width of the boats give plenty of space for wheelchair users to manoeuvre and the boats have special built-in facilities, including hydraulic lifts, wide-access boarding ramps, low-level bunks, heating and specially fitted showers, toilets, etc. 

Rebecca, Hannah and Diana have been designed so that wheelchair users can steer the boat using the tiller and both Hannah and Rachel have been fitted with a remote steering device that enables someone with less upper body mobility to steer from their wheelchair, using a joystick.

The Bruce Trust has enabled more that 11,000 disabled, disadvantaged or elderly people together with their carers, friends or family to enjoy participative canal-cruising holidays on the boats - as one family explained, “With increasing age and disability my father Harry’s days of enjoying canal holidays seemed to be over. But last week, there he was rising up on the lift to take the tiller once again and having a wonderful holiday with four generations of his family”. 

The holiday makers are helped on their way by the dedication of over  70 voluntary helpers who make sure that the Trust can operate in the best and most economical fashion. 

Some voluntary helpers also get involved with crewed day trips and this year more that 500 people from day centres or residential homes for the elderly were able to come out for a day of peaceful cruising on the canal.  

Email:  rebecca.bruce@brucetrust.org.uk

Web:  www.brucetrust.org.uk

Address – PO Box 21, Hungerford, Berkshire, RG17 9YY
Telephone – 01264 356451

K&A Canal Stoppage

The Kennet & Avon Canal is closed to navigation at Woolhampton Swingbridge (31) until further notice because of a hydraulic failure.

For more information call: 03030404040

UPDATE
The bridge has been repaired and the stoppage notice has been lifted.

Boat dwellers and canalside villagers agree... they all want peace — and quiet

Canalside residents and boaters at Honeystreet on the Kennet & Avon Canal are working together to overcome a noise and litter problem there.

A 'Quiet Zone' sign has now been put up near to the  Barge Inn at Honestreet.

A 'Quiet Zone' sign has now been put up near to the 

Barge Inn at Honestreet.

The inconsiderate use of generators by some boaters at Honeystreet on the K&A Canal has brought boat dwellers, the waterways manager and the parish council together to try to bring peace and quiet to the area — and it has resulted in a section of the canal through the village now been designated a quiet zone.

The Kennet & Avon Canal is no stranger to allegations of unacceptable behaviour by boat users, particularly aimed at people living on their boats in the Bath and Bradford on Avon area, and scurrilous stories have, save for a very few incidents, proved to be completely untrue.  

When the issue of boats and moorings at Honeystreet appeared on the agenda for Alton Parish Council earlier this year rumours quickly spread  anticipating a 'boater-bashing' repeat of campaigns waged against boats and boaters at the eastern end of the canal — and the fear that there could be an an attempt to try to stop boats mooring in the parish.

The Parish Council responded quickly to quash the rumours and Parish Clerk, Charles Reiss, issued a statement distancing the parish council from the prejudiced rhetoric of some of the critics of boaters on the K&A Canal. And he invited everyone interested to come the Alton Parish Council meeting in the Coronation Hall in Alton Barnes to give their views and discuss the issues. 

Parish clerk, Charles Reiss, front, left, talks to K&A Canal Waterways Manager, Mark Stephens during the fact-finding walk at Honeystreet. Picture by Bob Naylor: WaterMarx©

The afternoon before the meeting members of the parish council had walked the canal in the parish with Waterways Manager, Mark Stephens, Damian Kemp of the BW moorings team and Richard Birchall of the Residential Boat Owners Association and they were able to explain to Mark the problems they felt existed.

A packed meeting that evening  heard discussion that was mostly concerned with the affect that noise from the campsite at the Barge Inn and some boaters had on other canal users and local canalside residents. 

The Parish Council Chairman said that litter and boats overstaying on the moorings are also problems. He said that the village welcomes boaters, but that these problems need to be dealt with. 

A boater explained that most boaters routinely clear up after themselves and others, but she felt that it would be worthwhile to organise towpath tidies in the area —a suggestion that found favour with everyone at the meeting.  Mark Stephens said that BW would remove large items of litter such as discarded ballast 

The meeting agreed that signs designating the canal through the village as a quiet zone, along with encouragement of quieter behaviour from campsite users and boaters would help to solve the problem.

Another problem that Mark Stephens identified was that because of the extremely poor condition of much of the towpath on the Long Pound in the winter boaters tended to moor in places like Honeystreet where it is less muddy and he promised to look for ways to improve the towpath.

Police ask for help to find missing Bristol man

Avon and Somerset Police are asking for help to find Steve Hamlin, a vulnerable 60-year-old man, who has gone missing in Bristol.  He was last seen outside Barclays Bank in the Horsefair in the city at 3.30pm today.

He is a white man, about 5ft 7ins tall of stocky build with close-cropped grey hair and he has a slight beard/stubble. On one of his knuckles there is a tattoo saying "love". He is wearing a green mid-length green jacket, black jogging bottoms with a stripe down the side and was wearing a woollen black hat and he walks with a slight limp as a result of a former leg injury — he may appear confused. 

Concern is mounting because he is due to take his medication this evening.
Anyone able to help, or Steve himself, is asked to contact Trinity Road police station on the force number 101 or on-line using the following link: http://www.avonandsomerset.police.uk/contact/crime_reporting/

Shock closure of K&A canalside pub

The Barge Inn at Honeystreet.  Picture by Bob Naylor: WaterMarx©

The popular canalside pub, The Barge Inn, on the Kennet & Avon Canal at Honeystreet has shut up shop and sacked all its staff without notice.

When previous landlords, June and Adrian Potts, retired after running the pub for 17 years the pub was taken over by The Barge Inn Community Project in August 2010 using a £430,000 grant from the Big Lottery Fund in association with the BBC TV programme 'Village SOS'.

Popular with canal users and croppies

The pub has always been popular with local people and canal-users in general — and particularly with crop circle enthusiasts who have flocked to the pub from all over the world to study the creations in cornfields nearby.

Business sold as going concern

It has been repeatedly reported that the community buy-out saved the pub from closure — and the management team running the pub never did anything to correct that impression — but former Landlord, Adrian Potts, said that they sold the business because they were retiring — as a going concern.  "The community group offered to buy the business for the asking price which was a fair market price — so it was sold to them" he said. And he went on to say, "there was never a possibility of the pub closing."

Stills from the BBC news programme:

'How Clean is Your House' co-presenter

Aggie MacKenzie — and the ceramic sink.

How clean is your kitchen?
From the outset the community group committee worked closely with the BBC because of the Village SOS Project funding — and as part of this link the TV programme 'How clean is your house' came and filmed at the pub. Some film from the programme was shown on the local BBC TV station as a news item and portrayed the pub as being in a filthy and disgusting state. Mysteriously the actual programme never saw the light of day and Adrian Potts describes it as 'wholly innacurate'. "We paid a commercial cleaning company to come in when we moved out and they spent a whole day making sure that the kitchens were absolutely spotless before we handed it over " he said. "Yet the film that appeared on the local TV news showed a disgustingly filthy ceramic sink that they said was in our kitchen — but we have never ever had a ceramic sink in our kitchen — this was a total misrepresentation of the facts"

Community Project?

Although it was heralded as a community project the group ignored the massive local objections to a major music festival at the pub and they went ahead with the festival which was not a financial success — the following year the site for the music was moved many miles away to an isolated site on the Marlborough Downs — with festival-goers being bussed from the pub to the event.  Little is said of this event, but it is doubtful that it even covered its costs.
The project's first accounts declare massive losses

The accounts for the business while it was being run by the community project show a business that was failing from the outset. The accounts for the period ending May 2011 showed that the trading company's liabilities exceeded its total assets by £56,517. In a note lodged with Companies House with those accounts senior statutory auditor, Andrew Coombes, said: "The financial statements indicated the existence of a material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt about the company's ability to continue as a going concern'" and he warned that the financial statements did not include the 'adjustments' that would result if the company was unable to continue as a going concern.

"The financial statements indicated the existence of a material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt about the company's ability to continue as a going concern"
Andrew Coombes, auditor of accountants of David Owen & Co., Devizes

Community project still in deficit after busy summer trading

The accountants again expressed their concerns about the company's ability to continue as a going concern in a note with the accounts that covered the period to the end of September 2011 when they only showed a net profit of £19,676 after the busy summer period — and with the winter, which is always a quiet time for isolated canal side pubs, still ahead. At that time their current liabilities exceeded the total assets by £43,146 — and they had net liabilities at that time of £50,192.

£100,000 VAT debt?

The chairman of the buyout group, John Brewin, told the local newspaper, The Wiltshire Gazette & Herald,  that there was a large VAT debt but he would not confirm the £100,000 figure which is rumoured locally, He said, "We did try to register for VAT but we had the most awful problems." He also admitted to the paper that their running costs were far higher than those of the previous tenants and after a very poor summer their trade had fallen away completely.  It is alleged that their wage bill for a nine-month period was £166,000.  When asked how this compared with his wage bill former Landlord, Adrian Potts said: "Our total wage bill for a full year was between £60,000 and £70,000. I just cannot see how they could possibly afford to spend that sort of money on staff costs."
Newspaper comments
The story in the Gazette & Herald has attracted many critical comments including: "This is the second time a large sum of public money has seemingly disappeared down a black hole chasing a concept that many of us thought spurious anyway. The Pewsey PACT centre was bad enough but this is appalling. It is time that the Lottery Commission were instructed publicly to account for their actions and more notice was taken of whether the whole community were behind the project in the first place."

See the Gazette story at: Shocked Barge Inn staff told they were redundant as they left work

Pub to "remain closed pending stage two refurbishment"
While the pub is closed its owner, Ian McIver of Honestreet Ales is continuing work on the re-building of the adjacent barn to create an arts venue and a new sign has appeared on the door of the pub saying that the pub will "remain closed pending stage two refurbishment".