Further to our letter to Claverton and Monkton Combe Parish Councils
posted here; http://kanda.boatingcommunity.org.uk/wordpress/?p=210 we have received the following reply from the Clerk to Claverton Parish Council;
As the meeting was not a Claverton Parish Council Meeting I was not personally involved but please be assured there will be no evasion to your question from the Claverton Parish Councillors.
It may (or may not) help your investigations if I give you a brief summary of my personal experience of the situation on the canal. I am not fortunate enough to live within any of the parishes which flank the canal so this is purely a personal opinion and does not in any way represent the views of the Claverton Parish Council.
In the Summer I received a request from B&NES Council to contact a resident on the canal (who did not want to give his name) and I had a long conversation with this gentleman regarding the condition of the canal especially during the Summer months. He described it as a “linear rubbish dump” as black bags and other recepticals holding household waste were lined up along the tow path. He also commented on “overnighters” using the canal (and Warleigh Weir) as a toilet which is obviously not a good state of affairs as many children paddle in the weir. He witnessed residents collecting discarded rubbish on almost a daily
The conversation was quite lengthy and, as someone who had taken my children to play at the weir many years ago, I decided to pay a visit to see the state of that part of the canal. It was a rainy day and my husband and I trudged along the tow path and counted 6 black sacks but no other evidence as quoted.
I am sure that, during high days and holidays, the situation must be exacerbated and I am also confident that none of the interested parties would make ‘allegations’ – if these things have been witnessed then they are fact; why would people make untrue comments?
As I say, these are my personal observations and I hope they may help but, please rest assured, you will receive an official response to your enquiry within seven days.
We have replied;
Thank you for your detailed reply and I indeed know the black bags you mean. I do not know who dumped them, I am quite prepared to believe it was a boater and I now feel an bit of guilt that I wasn’t community minded enough to take them to the bins at Dundas. The boaters I know do have a high degree of respect for the environment and it is our belief that the boating community has ‘cleaned up its act’ in the last couple of years regarding rubbish on the towpath and the outward appearance of the boats. Certainly we are resolved to apply as much peer pressure as we can to keep that up.
And the situation at Warleigh Weir exasperates us all residents and boaters alike. Especially as the recent vandalism to boats, including arson, and thefts can be attributed to youth using Warleigh Weir.
To your point about why these allegations would be made if they were untrue then I must say that is our strong impression that there are those who resent the presence of liveaboard boats on the canal and that scurrilous complaints are being made. Unfortunately, supported by evidence or not, these complaints are influencing British Waterways policy.
Anyway…..
I still consider the allegations made to be very serious, especially as one of them was retailed by Sally Ash at the Devizes meeting. But I am putting my complaint on hold for the moment as some of us are meeting with David and Keith to work through some issues. I have hope that we can enable a more reasonable dialogue between the boating community and Claverton, Bathampton and Monkton Combe. We will review the situation after this meeting.
We note that we have received no reply from Monkton Combe or Bathampton. If it is necessary to invoke the local government complaints procedure then this will probably form part of the substance of our complaint.
Tags: Claverton, complaints
Dear All,
I write hoping someone will be able to point me in the right direction. Whilst I am not local I fell in love with Bath & its surrounds, not least Warleigh Weir, immediately. As such it breaks my heart whenever I visit Warleigh weir in the summer to find a burgeoning mountain of rubbish on the wee bridge as you exit the field to cross the railway line. I take what I can when i’m there and ask others to do the same but sadly there seem to be a quite significant number of inconsiderate users who insist on dumping rubbish. Is there a volunteer group to remove it I could join? If not I feel so strongly I would gladly hire a van for half a day to clear it.
Again, any suggestions or pointers would be greatly appreciated.
Yours sincerely,
Brian Benson
Yes, it’s interesting how Warleigh Weir is our fault, because it’s got water in it. I note in a similar vein that members of Bathampton PC are blaming us for the parties, motor bikes, etc in the field above the Folly foot bridge. They’ve become attached to us in someone’s mind, simply because they disapprove of both.
How’s that for rigorous thinking, eh ?
Blimey. I am shocked. 1 boat leaves some black bags out (what a lazy git) and the boaters are tarred as creating a ‘linear rubbish dump’.
A) it makes me angry with the individual who left the rubbish out and shows how important it is for boaters to realise that they are responsible for their environment even if it requires cleaning up for other lazy boaters.
We share the canal with the wider community and our 365 residency makes us, in a way, the custodians of the canal.
B) it shows how the action of an individual boater can be amplified by the voice of an individual resident with an axe to grind against our community. A few bags of rubbish becomes a ‘rubbish dump’, the overwhelming good practice of boaters becomes nothing.
From this 1 genuine but obviously minor complaint, boaters are made responsible for all of the social problems associated with summertime youth activity at Warleigh Weir! It is frustrating that someone’s prejudice against boaters can lead to such nonsensical thinking and that this can then be fed into BWs malignant agenda against out community.