Liveaboard boaters are organising a towpath tidy between Semington and Hilperton on Sunday 11th February 2018. Everyone is welcome. Please join us at the canal bridge at Semington (160) at 11.30 am for an 11.45 am start. We aim to litterpick between Seend Park swing bridge (155) and Hilperton Marina. This is around a 3.5 mile stretch so we will need lots of people!
The next meeting of the K&A Boaters’ Action Group will be on Monday 11th December 2017 at 7.30pm in the Canal Tavern, 49 Frome Rd, Bradford on Avon BA15 1LE. We will have lots of paper copies of the CRT Boat Licence Review questionnaire so that anyone who hasn’t responded yet can fill one in. The consultation closes on 18th December so it’s your last chance to get your views in. CRT is proposing to increase the cost of a boat licence without a home mooring, so it’s really important that the views of boaters without a home mooring are represented in this consultation.
During the last week of November 2017, liveaboard boaters carried out improvements to the towpath in Horton where it is uneven and becomes very slippery and unsafe in winter. Seven people helped to barrow and shovel scalpings and gravel onto the towpath near Horton Bridge and on the approach to Horton Chain Bridge.
On the hottest day of the year, a bunch of liveboard boaters and local residents decided to do something about the growing mound of rubbish left at a popular swimming spot on the River Avon. Our correspondent Michelle writes:
At the bottom of Ferry Lane is a beautiful little spot called Warleigh Weir, which has always been a popular spot for swimming in the summer when it gets too hot. But in recent years this little spot has grown in popularity drawing more and more people from further afield.
Tony, a local resident, told me that it has always been busy in the summer, but he has never seen it as bad as in the last two years. As we spoke somebody cranked up a sound system and there were whoops and cheers from the 100 plus crowd gathered there. I asked him how he puts up with it and he shrugged. There isn’t much he can do. A few weeks ago people had trespassed into his back garden and stole a tender in broad daylight and he feels he has little hope of seeing that again. Tony’s 82 next week…
As has been seen by the aftermaths of many a festival (the village of Pilton after the Glasto is a perfect example of this), a thing which attracts crowds, also attracts rubbish. After a particularly busy week this month a large pile of rubbish had built up just on the other side of the railway tracks. Apparently it had started as a hippo bag placed by an unknown, but in the way of many piles of rubbish it out grew its container and sprawled out in the most hideous fashion.
A local walker known as Luna Bella shared a post about the sprawling heap and the rubbish strewn about the fields on Facebook; it was picked up by the Bath Chronicle who ran an article, which got shared enough times that it came to the attention of a few people willing to do something about it.
So on the longest day of the year a group of local residents and boaters (17 in total) turned up armed to the teeth with bin liners, gloves and litter pickers and rolled up their sleeves to tackle a heap that embodied a great wrong in our society.
Michelle’s photo of the Warleigh clear-up
It took over two hundred bin liners and over an hour to bag and shift the heap from one side of the track to the other and in spite of the grossness of the task there was lots of laughter about who could find the best stuff.
We found raw and cooked meats, unopened packets of sandwiches, towels, shoes, cool boxes, disposable bbqs, beer cans, wine and cider bottles (many smashed), lilos, picnic blankets, socks and even a test for Chlamydia. The smell was atrocious and there were many squeals of disgust as unexpected bin juice spattered on feet hands and legs, but the band were determined and the heap was conquered.
A few of the swimmers were roped into the task as Tony thrust bins at them on the way past politely saying, “you’ve enjoyed our patch, can you help tidy it?”
Just a slight scar but the heap was vanquished.
I think that there was probably a bit of rubbish left at the weir last night as when I left, the party was still in full swing. I’ve been a boater for over twenty years now and during that time I’ve been called a number of things, but the worst to be levelled at me and I think the wider boating community is that we are somehow an environmental nuisance.
All of the boaters I know wouldn’t dream of dumping their rubbish in this fashion. Even if it does mean humping it a couple of kilometers down the towpath in all weathers to dispose of it responsibly, that is what they will do. To see this level of carelessness makes our hearts sink, but thankfully we have a will to tackle it and that restores my faith in humanity somewhat.
You can read the full story and much more on Michelle’s blog
https://boatspregnancyanduniversity.wordpress.com/2017/06/22/warleigh-waste/
See also
http://kanda.boatingcommunity.org.uk/towpath-tidy-wilcot-4th-september/
http://kanda.boatingcommunity.org.uk/boaters-towpath-tidy-22nd-march-devizes-to-horton-join-us/
The next meeting of the K&A boaters action group will be on Monday 8th May 2017 at 7.30pm at the Lamb Inn, 20 St.John’s Street, Devizes SN10 1BT. We will have voter registration forms for people without a fixed address for boaters to either complete on the spot, take away, or distribute to other boaters. If you have the time to deliver some forms to the boats around you, please come to the meeting!
More facilities for boaters are planned on the K&A. In a meeting between K&A Manager Mark Evans and representatives of liveaboard boaters in which refuse and sewage disposal facilities, water taps and maintenance were discussed, Mr Evans said he was looking at providing an extra water tap on the eastern end of the canal, possibly at Thatcham.
There will be a Canal Forum meeting between local residents and Parish Councils in the Pewsey area and boaters next Wednesday 23rd November 2016 at Stanton St Bernard Village Hall at 5.30pm for a 6pm start. This is a continuation of the previous meetings in 2014 and 2015 chaired by CRT in the Pewsey Vale to resolve issues between local residents and canal users, especially liveaboard boaters. Please come to this meeting, especially if you regularly moor your boat in the Long Pound.