Danny Brennan Chair Waterway Partnership Welcome and introductions Presentations • • Canoe trails • Waterside fun days • Shared use of • Working in partnership • Encouraging use of the tidal Trent Summary; Q & A Networking • We’re 3 years old! Custodianship of 2000 miles of , rivers, heritage, environmental and property assets • 2014/15 spend – over £130m on charitable activities: • most applied to annual programme of planned maintenance and repair • £18m on larger infrastructure projects • nearly £11m on clearing and maintaining towpaths • nearly £7m on dredging - 130,000 tonnes of silt. • Exceptional volunteer input: • equivalent to nearly 60,000 days last year • East Midlands leading the way • worth £6.5m nationally – but also priceless. • Significant grant and development funding secured e.g. £830,000 for improvements on the , working with Society – now live! • We’re now full participants in 21st century – strong digital presence What’s all that for? • to maintain and improve the asset; • to widen access to and enjoyment of it and, in turn, • create that sense of common ownership of, and care for, the waterways we need for a sustainable future. Some ways to do so? • Increasing participation and activity – on and alongside the water; focus on young people • Re-connecting waterside communities • Developing partnerships with stakeholders • Improvements − Lincoln visitor mooring extension − New visitor moorings – − Trent welcome station / education base

• Volunteering − New partnership members − East Midlands: over 35,600 hours in 2014/15 with 11 active adoptions

• Events − Water Day − Radcliffe on Trent Bio-blitz − Nottingham event planning

• Research, project testing/development − Nottingham Trent University partnership • Improvements − Tidal Trent − Visitor welcome at key destinations − harmony

• Building partnerships − Existing (e.g. Grantham Canal Society, Waterways Partnership) − New (e.g. local authorities, Lincoln BIG)

• Youth engagement − continuation − Lincolnshire &

• Health & wellbeing − Research − Projects responding to local need/demand David Hutchinson Environment Agency & Seán McGinley Canal & River Trust • Lincoln to Boston • CRT are the Navigation Authority • Lock Keepers at either end, and two other locks in between • Water is used for boating, rowing and angling • Towpath used for walking and cycling • Plenty of visitor moorings, many funded by LWP • Working with LCC and the EA in partnership over a number of years.

£185,000 a year is spent cutting weed from navigations in the East Midlands

This is 30% of the spend for the whole country • Plans to carry out dredging in early 2016 • Have surveyed the full length of the Witham • Dredging planned for the visitor mooring areas, upstream of Bardney Lock and several other locations along the river. • Estimated planned spend is around £250,000 We’re keen to see more people use and enjoy the river and its towpath and are happy to listen to any ideas on how this can be achieved. Liz Fleuty Canal & River Trust Designing infrastructure to facilitate canoeing: • Car parking • Portage & get-in points • Signage We’ll be using the places identified by canoeists to prioritise the need for improvements: • GREEN: Little improvement needed for a great trail • AMBER: Works that would help aid canoeists, but needing some funding • RED: Works requiring major investment, with a low priority for canoeists • Big potential for canoe usage – but less well-known than other waterways • First trail - to Gallows Inn, • Second trail – Gallows Inn to • Coming soon! Anyone can help us identify suitable trails - all we need to know is: • The places you love to canoe • Barriers to paddling on the East Midlands waterway network • Your ideas for involving canoeists Robin Stonebridge East Midlands Waterway Partnership & Chesterfield Canal Trust  Caretaker of waterways

Advocate for waterways The Canal & River Trust helps transform places and enrich lives by creating, caring for and giving everyone access to living waterways, today and tomorrow. We aim to:

• Breathe new life into our canals and rivers

• Ensure our canals and rivers are cherished by and make a difference to the communities they serve

• Help more people discover and enjoy the magic of the waterways

• Increase access to our canals and rivers for current and future generations • Trent Lock • West Stockwith • Radcliffe on Trent • Erewash • Worksop 1 • Worksop 2 • Nottingham

• Local involvement from playgroups to pensioners • Joint ownership and shared purpose • Willingness to try new approaches and themes • Having fun • Looking for sustainability ?

? Seán McGinley Canal & River Trust • One of the most common issues raised by users of the towpath is the lack of space and the discourteous nature of some users towards others

• The Canal & River Trust have created a national campaign called “Share the Space” to highlight this issue and to try to change behaviour

• Within the East Midlands, the centre of Nottingham is the main issue

• Worked with students at Nottingham Trent University to look at this issue in Nottingham • Project work as part of their MDM Course • Research and survey work carried out on the towpath in May of this year • Also carried out some research on line and through Survey Monkey • Perception is that cyclists are the biggest threat to walkers • Perception is that dog walkers are the biggest threat to cyclists • The major issue preventing harmony is a lack of consideration (not space or speed) • Uncertainty regarding the right of way had caused incidents • Over 50% of cyclists had been involved in an incident • Education Code of Conduct / Campaign • Enforcement Volunteer Rangers • Engineering Signage / Markings

Valerie Holt East Midlands Waterway Partnership • Stretches from Redmile to Harby and is in unfavourable status • Important for plants, birds and invertebrates • Grass-wrack pondweed out-competed by other vegetation • 2006 survey found the plant in an upstream section • Natural keen to dredge • Successful bid to Veolia for funding • Additional funding from Melton Borough Council • Match funding from Canal & River Trust • Carried out December 2014

• Collected from the by students from Brooksby Melton College • Grown on at the college • Propagated and over-wintered at the Sustainable Land Trust

• Canal & River Trust • Veolia • Melton Borough Council • Brooksby Melton College • Sustainable Land Trust • Natural England

• With assistance from the GCP Environmental Sub Group David Pullen East Midlands Waterway Partnership & Inland Waterways Association

• The Trent is the main artery of our regional waterways • Connects north - south via East Midlands • “T1” - a waterway version of the A1! • Provides access to: • Fossdyke & River Witham – Lincoln, Boston, The Wash, Navigation, Black Sluice Navigation, Fens Waterways Link, Witham Navigable Drains • Chesterfield Canal – Worksop, - a beautiful and also underused canal • The tidal Trent is vastly underused – why? • CRT East Midlands Partnership The Boating Association (TBA) The Inland Waterways Association (IWA). • Short on-line survey – 5 questions • 436 responses • For how many years have you been boating? 2/3rds of respondents had been boating for 10 years +

• Do you ever use river navigations? 90% “yes”, but only 40% frequently

• Have you ever used the tidal Trent? About 50% “yes”

• What stops you from using the river? Few visitor moorings & risk of boating are greater • What would make you more likely to use rivers?

− Detailed charts and written information

− YouTube videos or similar

− Buddying up with experienced boaters Our planned actions:

• Publicise the Boating Association (TBA) charts

• YouTube video and apps (Nottingham Trent University)

• Google Maps?

• Develop a buddy system – IWA/CRT

@canalrivertrust & @CRT_EastMids /canalrivertrust /canalrivertrust canalrivertrust.org.uk