On Wednesday, May 09, 2007 11:18 AM [GMT+1=CET], BARRY HOLLAND <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> And here's me expecting that Mike Stevens, who works very hard on the > publicity side of things @ LV would be the one to have a gripe! Steve got there first because I've been moored up somewhere where I couldn;pt get a usable mobile contact to the internet. > Just a thought, now the towpath is open between the pool & the > basin, do you think that there's a tendency to s t r e t c h the > attractions somewhat? Cavalcade has always been chronically short of space. We've felt in necessary to thin out the number of trade stands we put on the south towpath of the pool in order to releieve congestion at the busy times, which has moved the centre of gravity of the trade side of the event round the corner onto the bit that's only been available recently. And even there we're fairly pushed for space since most of the retil units in the development are now in operation and we obviously can't block them. >[Any ideas for instance why the previously used > open ground just past Rembrandt Gardens was not used for stalls & > suchlike?] Two reasons (a) the ground surface there is not looked afteradequately by Westminsterat the moment, pending redevelopment, and has become very unsafe. Last time we used that side we had to cordon off a lot of the cobbled area because the tree roots has so damaged it that it had become a real hazard. The same year the grass area became treacherously muddy. (b) Since Westminster reorganised itself into business units, the Parks Department want to charge us quite a lot of money for using it - previously they let us use it for free as part of their support for the event, but that was a defision by a different department! However the situation there may change as there are plans to landscape the area when they put in the new footbridge (actually the old Bishop's Bridge by Brunel, retored and relocated). When that happens (next year or the year after) we'll be able to negotiate with Westminster on a different basis. But there was no way we were going to pay a lot of money to use a site we thought was fundamentally unsafe. Mike Stevens narrowboat Felis Catus III web-site www.mike-stevens.co.uk Defend the waterways. Visit the web site www.saveourwaterways.org.uk
