On Tue, 20 Nov 2007 10:24:04 -0000, Neil Arlidge wrote: >There is one school of thought that says we should just let BW get on with >it. The waterways will survive in some form or other. With a slight downturn >in the economy BW will hang themselves...after all that is what happens when >you mess with virtual privatisation, market forces and 200 year old >infrastructure...look what happened to Railtrack...and Metronet. >There is another view (mainly subsribed by Steve Haywood) that BW have made >powerful enemies in the govt and that the poor waterways will have to suffer >as old scores are settled. > ><The TNC rant removal tool has removed the rest of this text> > >Hopefully Nick Atty will now pop up and present us with a refined version of >his rather accurate view on the way BW "works", in a better way than I ever >could :-)
I've only just caught up with this. I'm not sure which particular of my points of view you're after at this stage - though honoured by the comment. I think I am coming to the view that for the waterways as we love them to survive a period of downturn is not only inevitable, but essential. Given the choice between the atmospheric waterways I grew into, and the sanitised and tarted up ones we are getting (and I'm not arguing against the occasional central Birmingham here [the destruction of Gas Street excepted]) I find it hard not to wish for a return to the late 70s and early 80s. I am arguing against: Endless rows of identikit fake-wharehouse-shaped housing on both banks of miles of waterways in the suburbs. Endless shiny office buildings in the centres Both of which take a lot of value from being by the waterways, and from having boats passing, but return nothing other than the occasional "No Mooring" sign or the closure of a useful facility because it doesn't fit in. New boat after new boat crewed by people who have no interest in the waterways per se, and with precious little knowledge of the waterways, and who view any attempt to get from a to b in under a fortnight - by doing something obscene like lock-wheeling or moving past endless rows of moored boats instead of sitting there with the generator running as all good boaters should - as something to object to with jibes about "relaxing". Against that, of course, will come the closures (remember the endless tunnel failures), and a lower standard of maintenance. But - let's be honest - how many of your most treasured waterways memories not of doing something against the odds, rather than in complete ease? In this I find myself echoing something Robert Aikman said that I can't be bothered to go and look for at the moment. So a cut in funding, a few collapses and a lot more scuffiness drives out the people for whom a boat is an alternative to a cottage in spain, and leaves the waterways for those who can see beneath the surface to the true heart of the canals. More cuts! Now! Is that what you were on about? -- On-line canal route planner: http://www.canalplan.org.uk (Waterways World site of the month, April 2001) My Reply-To address *is* valid, though likely to die soon
