The future of the Friends of Regent's Canal



The following comments were supplied on the reverse of the Agenda sheet at the meeting on 19th February 2014

We are an unconstituted group of unpaid volunteers who share an interest in promoting and protecting the Regent's Canal. Our specific values vary widely throughout the group but none of us would like to see the canal fall back into disrepair or exploited by greedy short-term opportunists.

We are needed because we can help to hold property developers and town planners to account, by mobilising residents and experts, and we act as the eyes and ears of the canal whenever it is under threat.

We are independent of the CRT and the local authorities and we are prepared to support or challenge them when the need arises. Most of the time we are supportive.

Currently we have no funds, no membership or committee and the only officer is the chair. Our minimal running costs are met through donations and Corporate Social Responsibility actions.

Our meetings are open to the general public and occur four times a year. There are up to 50 regular attendees and up to 500 e-mail subscribers. For the past three years we have relied on e-mail, our website and the local press to broadcast announcements and news and in recent weeks we have had a presence on Twitter. The Twitter account will result in two-way communication with the public and it will probably trigger a sudden surge in our audience.

There appears to be no burning need for a written constitution, since we are not trying to open a bank account, but we have reached a point where we need to explain our role to third parties and future supporters. This sort of discussion can be held at a separate meeting between now and May.

In 2014 we will face new challenges trying to address the growing number of issues and opportunities that come our way and we need to find ways of sustaining momentum so that previous issues do not get buried by new ones. The time has come to identify individuals and sub groups to focus on special areas of interest and to keep topics alive between our quarterly meetings.

Volunteers are now needed to assist with website design and maintenance, monitoring of planning applications, chasing up of previous issues and general coordination across the group .