5. Bow Wharf

5.1 Ian Shacklock gave a short presentation illustrating the role of Bow Wharf in supporting canal maintenance operations, its future potential for supporting waterborne transport and the CRT-led proposals to let go of it and change its use. (CRT = Canal & River Trust)

5.2 The presentation began with a map showing the limited number of sites that could act as wharves and spaces where working boats can be moored. These boats are vital for canal maintenance and litter clearance and they must never be too far from key locations along the canal.

5.3 Three key locations were identified as viable wharves: Bow Wharf, Bangor Wharf and Copperfield Road. These should all be protected from overdevelopment otherwise the canal could never be put to use again for transporting goods.

5.4 The presentation included photographs showing the CRT on-site offices (to be demolished), the mooring spaces for working boats, the cycle repair workshop (one of several outlets to be demolished) and the existing warehouse (a listed building which will be unrecognisable once it is converted into flats).

5.5 One of the slides itemised the following reasons for objecting to the development proposals:

• CRT selling the family silver
• Decimation of heritage
• Loss of employment
• Loss of amenities
• No attempt to retain successful business units
• Only 8 affordable homes (15%)
• Potential conflict between residents and working boats
• Loss of a potential wharf with road access

5.6 Ian offered to object to the planning application on behalf of the Friends of Regent's Canal and nobody in the meeting objected.

5.7 Further information is available on our website

6. Towpath Litter

6.1 Ian Shacklock gave a short presentation illustrating examples of litter along the canal and groups of volunteers clearing it up. It also included a list of litter problems and a list of possible solutions. This led to numerous contributions from the meeting.

6.2 The current build-up of litter is due largely to an executive decision by the CRT to remove all bins from the towpath in 2023. The CRT was hoping to follow the example of the National Trust where visitors are expected to take their litter home. The idea was trialled along the Lea and Stort where the river cuts through the countryside in Hertfordshire and Essex and no problems were reported. However, the Lea and Stort do not attract the same volumes or types of visitors as Camden Lock Market, so the trial was very unrepresentative of London behaviours.

6.3 There are no signs along the canal or at its entry points to request visitors to take their litter and dog waste away from the canal.

6.4 There is no distinct budget or staffing plan for clearing litter. Litter clearance tasks are merged with canal maintenance tasks, which can be very unpredictable. Hence, when a major pollution incident occurred in May, most of the CRT's resources were diverted away from litter duties.

6.5 A lot of the litter is a serious environmental hazard. Particularly dog waste on pathways used by children and plastic bags that harm wildlife and boat propulsion.

6.6 There are no regular collections of litter and no information is published stating when the towpath was last cleaned.

6.7 There are no receptacles for waste in convenient places and no signs giving directions to the nearest street bins. This is particularly inconvenient for volunteers who cannot dispose of their litter sacks.

6.8 In some boroughs there is little or no collaboration between the council and the CRT. In one instance a volunteer was admonished for using a council bin for litter that "belonged to the canal".

6.9 An obvious solution for the litter crisis is for central government to provide extra funding to the CRT. However we would need an assurance that this funding is put to its intended use.

6.10 The CRT's litter picking budget should be ring-fenced and not buried amongst other operational tasks.

6.11 The CRT runs Towpath Taskforce events, where volunteers register themselves to work under CRT supervision. These events are suitable for one-off tasks such as clearing vegetation, recovering supermarket trolleys and painting locks and they are usually supported by an industrial working boat.

6.12 Towpath adoptions are a means of encouraging local communities to manage their own stretches of the towpath.

6.13 The CRT is encouraging groups of volunteers to register as "partners". Once a group leader has been vetted, the CRT will supply equipment such as litter picking kits, rubbish sacks and gloves.

6.14 An alternative approach is for members of the public to pick up litter as they go without registering with the CRT. One advantage of this method is that it can be done spontaneously and responsively, without booking an event online, but Councillor Callaghan warned that this could be quite dangerous if there are sharps amongst the litter and if inadequate clothing and equipment is used.

6.15 From time to time litter clearance is handled via corporate events. This requires agreement with the CRT and it can be effective for certain one-off tasks.

6.16 Another approach is to allow young offenders to clear litter via a Community Payback project. This is currently happening on the River Lea but there are logistical reasons why it cannot be deployed in Camden Town.

6.17 A group of volunteers has recently launched the "Cleaner Canals Campaign". Henry Mitson explained to the meeting how this campaign will use legal processes, for example via the House of Lords, to enforce the CRT's duty to keep the canals clean and to reinstate the litter bins. More information is available via their website and their substack. Their cause was recently reported in the Islington Tribune and the same article appeared a week later in the Camden New Journal.

6.18 An educational campaign is urgently needed to persuade the public to keep their environment tidy. It seems that litter dropping is regarded as acceptable behaviour by many people and we need to rebrand it as uncool. Several suggestions were made to involve local schoolchildren to get the messages across.

6.19 Kal Webb advised the meeting that the CRT had also removed boaters' access to bins. Whilst this has no direct impact on towpath users, it makes rubbish clearance more difficult for boaters and puts a strain on the rest of the canal.

6.20 Questions were asked about graffiti removal. This is not a task that can be handled easily by volunteers as it requires special equipment and sometimes requires permission from property owners.

7. Canal Closures

7.1 The Regent's Canal suffered four major closures in April and May. Ian Shacklock presented a slide showing that the canal was fully open for only seven days in a four week period.

7.2 The first incident occurred when a widebeam boat rammed the lock gate at City Road Lock and the lock was mostly unuseable for 11 days. After a few days a group of volunteer lock keepers stepped in to provide assisted passages for narrow boats for a few hours each day, but it remained out of action for wider boats and waste/recycling barges.

7.3 A few days later a major fire occurred at the electricity substation above Maida Hill Tunnel. This led to a major pollution incident and the tunnel remained closed to all boat traffic for five days.

7.4 Eight days later, a second fire broke out at the substation and the tunnel was closed yet again.

7.5 A day later, all the locks in Camden Town were closed by the CRT in order to repair badly leaking lock gates. This was not a sudden incident because the leaks have been occurring since last August. The closure could have been avoided if the second lock chamber at Hampstead Road Locks had been brought back into use a lot sooner.

7.6 These incidents have cost the CRT huge sums of money and it is not known whether the CRT will receive any compensation. They have also exacerbated the litter problems because operational staff and equipment have been diverted to other tasks.

7.7 Local businesses have also suffered losses due to these closures. Most notably the waterbuses, whose routes avoid all locks but were unable to operate due to the tunnel closure.

7.8 The trip boats above Hawley Lock (Jenny Wren and My Fair Lady) were inaccessible for over a week because they were trapped between two closed locks. It is a mystery why the CRT did not forewarn this well established business before closing any of the locks.

7.9 The first two closures had a serious impact on the annual festival at Little Venice. Many boats needed to abandon their journeys, including participating boaters who had paid for their slots in advance and community boats that were blocked by the tunnel. Others needed to leave the event early in order to join the FBW flotilla ahead of the lock closures.

7.10 The closures nearly caused an environmental hazard at Camden Lock Market because once the recycling barge was full it was unable to move in either direction and whilst a spare empty vessel was available it was prevented from reaching the market. There was a serious risk that the market operators would revert to using roads rather than the canal for waste transfer.

7.11 Ian Shacklock noted that there was very limited communication between canal supporters about the closures, other than via Facebook posts, and that the CRT alerts were useful for providing brief updates but they cannot be relied upon for a full explanation. Ian was concerned that further closures could occur this summer and felt that the Friends could become more proactive in reducing their impact.

7.12 Carolyn Clark expressed concerns about deteriorating standards of boat handling. The incident at City Road Lock was not an isolated one and Carolyn had previously witnessed a widebeam boater misjudging their own dimensions under a bridge and crashing into other boats.