Friends of Regent’s Canal - Meeting Report

1. Present

2. Apologies

Roger Squires

Carolyn Clark

Rod Wakeham

Helen Brice (NBTA)

Eliot Lancaster

Lee Wilshere

Cllr Una O'Halloran

Marnie Collins

Emma Smith

Veronica Seymour Farr

Cllr Sara Hyde

Caroline Neller

Jenifer Chan

Cllr Joseph Croft

Nic Shore

Sarah-Jane (IBC)

Gideon Corby

3. Introductions

At the start of the meeting, all the attendees introduced themselves.

4. Announcements

This was our first meeting since the pandemic and various events and issues were worthy of mention.

4.1 Regent's Canal bicentary celebrations

The year 2020 was an important milestone for the Regent's Canal. Numerous events and exhibitions had been planned to celebrate the 200th year since the canal was fully opened in August 1820. Sadly most of these events were cancelled.

4.2 East End Canal Festival

A successful festival took place on 16th and 17th July at Mile End Park. This had been delayed by two years due to the pandemic.

See leaflet

4.3 Angel Canal Festival

This festival, which had been running every year since 1986, was cancelled in 2020. It was revived in September 2021.

4.4 Little Venice Festival

The 3-day Canalway Cavalcade, which had been running every year since 1983, was cancelled in 2020 and 2021. It returned in May 2022.

4.5 Hackney Council cyber attack

In October 2020 Hackney Council was hit by a major cyber attack and its website was out of action for a prolonged period.

Several planning applications on our watch needed to be put on hold and they were resubmitted after new systems were in place. It looks like we will never be able to view the historic applications again.

4.6 Goodbye to Starbucks

The lease for the Lock Keeper's Cottage in Camden Town has expired and the Starbucks store is now closed. A new coffee store will be opening once the lease has been signed but the identity of the new tenants is unknown. This building is an official information centre for the Regent's Canal so it is important that we remain involved in any refurbishment plans.

4.7 Regent's Wharf demolition

The demolition work at Regent's Wharf in King's Cross has completed and the developers employed barges instead of HGVs for some of this work. However their use of the canal appeared to be very reluctant even though it was in the best interests of the environment. We will need to follow this up.

4.8 Regent's Network archive

Following the death of Del Brenner in 2021 we have taken ownership of all the archive information for the Regents Network. This is a huge collection of campaign material covering Greater London over a 20-year period. Eventually this will be passed on to a permanent archive store or museum, but it will take effort from volunteers to work through it.

Some examples of this collection are available here.

4.9 Planning reforms

In August 2020 the government launched a consultation for a major shake-up of the planning system. The intention was to eliminate any checks and balances that interfered with developer's wishes. The public would have had little or no say in individual plans and even the local councillors would have been excluded. Here is a copy of our bulletin where this was first announced.

4.10 Ongoing complaints about towpath cycling

We still receive complaints about aggressive cyclists on the towpath. Things are now worse than ever since the arrival of e-bikes and e-scooters, which are faster and heavier than conventional bicycles. The meeting agreed unanimously that cycling is a serious problem on the towpath. The chair offered to set aside an area on the website to publish people's experiences.

4.12 In Memoriam

Since our last meeting in 2019 a number of our colleagues have passed away. Tributes can be found on our website.

5. Update on Holborn Studios

For the past ten years we have worked with Holborn studios to fight off their landlords' plans to demolish the buildings. Several planning applications have been submitted. The first one was withdrawn and the next two were approved in questionable circumstances only to be overturned in the High Court. In March 2022 a further attempt was made by the developer but five of the councillors voted to keep the studios complex and buildings intact. The developer has now appealed to the Planning Inspectorate.

Holborn Studios and Hackney Council will now be working together in order to defend this decisaion at a Public Inquiry in Januayr 2023.

Here are some slides that were shown at the meeting.

6. Update on Belmont Wharf

Here are some slides that were shown at the meeting.

7. Talk by David Fathers

8. iRecycle

Here are some slides that were shown at the meeting.

9. Planning applications

10. Safety hazards and ASB on the locks

Here are some slides that were shown at the meeting.

11. Future of our group

12. Update on Islington Boat Club

The Islington Boat Club was closed by Islington Council without warning on 6th May 2022. No statements have been issued and there is no ETA for its revival. We were expecting one or more representatives of the club to attend this meeting, to provide an update and to take questions from the floor, but nobody was available. Some slides were supplied shortly before the meeting but they could not be included in the presentation.

A copy of the information supplied to the chair is available here.

There was an open discussion about the situation, but no conclusions were reached. There are still a lot of unanswered questions. For example, how many leases are in force, when do they expire, and who is responsible for repairs?