Subject: Friends of Regent's Canal - Events and News

Dear Friends,

Here is a summary of events and news items. More details are available further below and on our website.

EVENTS

1) Saturday 29th September, 4pm. Final performance of "Regent's Canal" - a Folk Opera.
2) Tuesday 2nd October, 6pm. Tiber Gardens Consultation Evening.
3) Wednesday 3rd October, 5:30pm. Opportunity to meet Mount Anvil (City Road Basin).
4) Sunday 7th October. Wildlife on Your Waterways Festival (Camley Street)
5) Thursday 11th October. Launch of Towpath Taskforce. (City Road Basin).
6) Friday 12th October, 10am. Camden Biodiversity Workshop.
7) Sunday 14th October. 200th anniversary of first cutting of the canal.
8) Wednesday 17th October, 7pm. Canal and River Trust London User Group Meeting
9) 14th or 21st Nov. Next public meeting of Friends of Regent's Canal

NEWS

10) Consultation on cafe proposals at City Road Lock
11) Permeability issues at Packington Square
12) Hawley Wharf redevelopment proposals
13) CASS Student Project (London Met University)
14) IKEA floating exhibition
15) Canal Park at Hackney Cut
16) Consultation on residential mooring proposals at Noel Road

DETAILS OF EVENTS

1) Final performance of "Regent's Canal" - a Folk Opera.

This takes place at 4pm today, at Somers Town Community Centre, 150 Ossulston Street, NW1 1EE. For full programme details, please visit http://friendsofregentscanal.org/features/musicals/folk-opera.html

2) Tiber Gardens Consultation Evening.

Tiber Gardens adjoin the towpath opposite Kings Place. There are plans to open them up again and to make constructive use of them as a community resource. For details of this event please visit http://friendsofregentscanal.org/events/2012/2012-10-02/Tiber-Gardens-evening.html

3) Opportunity to meet Mount Anvil (City Road Basin).

We were caught by surprise this month when some hoardings were relocated around City Road Basin. Sadly these will reduce the width of the walkway for the next 18 months or so and we are now in discussions with Mount Anvil, Islington Council and other stakeholders, to find some suitable compromises on permeability. Some of the recent press reports on this are a bit misleading, so if you want to know our current stance on this then please visit our website, come to our next meeting or contact me directly. We have a provisional arrangement to meet Mount Anvil at the basin on Wednesday between 5:30pm and 6:30pm. If you are interested, then contact Kevin Payne at Mount Anvil (020 7776 1608) or myself (07980 599854).

4) Wildlife on Your Waterways Festival (Camley Street)

This will take place on Sunday 7th October. Details to follow. ("WOW" is an initiative being run by the London Wildlife Trust in partnership with ourselves and the London Canal Musem).

5) Launch of Towpath Taskforce. (City Road Basin).

This is a new name for Towpath Tidy. Its objective is to engage volunteers in lock painting, litter and vegetation control. For details, please visit http://friendsofregentscanal.org/events/2012/2012-10-11-ttf-launch/towpath-taskforce-launch.html

6) Camden Biodiversity Workshop.

Places are limited, but if you are interested then please visit http://friendsofregentscanal.org/events/2012/2012-10-12/Camden-biodiversity.html

7) 200th anniversary of first cutting of the canal.

The anniversary date for this event is Sunday 14th October. A book on the Regent's Canal (by David Fathers) is being launched on this date. For details please visit http://friendsofregentscanal.org/events/2012/2012-10-14/David-Fathers-launch.html

8) Canal and River Trust London User Group Meeting

The first user group meeting since the transition to charity will take place at the London Canal Museum, Wednesday 17th October, 7pm. I strongly recommend that you try to attend this meeting if you want to find out how our canal is going to be run in the future. This is going to be a learning experience for everybody, including the organisers. These meetings normally occur every six months and there is never enough time available to cover everybody's questions, so if there is anything specific you want to ask then please feel free to contact me beforehand. To see an agenda please visit http://friendsofregentscanal.org/meetings/CRT-agenda-2012-10-17.html

9) Next public meeting of Friends of Regent's Canal

The venue has not been booked yet, but the two most likely dates are 14th or 21st November. If either of these dates are problematic, then please advise me.

DETAILS OF NEWS ITEMS

10) Consultation on cafe proposals at City Road Lock

A new planning application has been submitted for the conversion of the lockside buildings to a cafe/gallery/workshop. I have explained on several occasions that I am happy to support the revised plan, because it allows for integration of the community, because it is now a mixed use facility, and because the contemporary design features have been toned town. I will be composing a statement in due course, and you are welcome to contribute to it. To see the official documents, please visit https://www.islington.gov.uk/onlineplanning/docserver/docs.jsp?caseId=P121893

11) Permeability issues at Packington Estate

During the summer break there were a number of discussions about cycling restrictions at the Packington Estate. Hoardings were erected at very short notice, probably in breach of council regulations, and this has put a popular cycle route out of action for two years. A diversion is now in place, and apart from the ambiguous signage it is not much of an inconvenience, but it has not been a good start to the latest construction phase. More importantly, there are serious doubts that the final layout of the estate will offer suitable East-West cycle routes, and this could be a major threat to our determined efforts to lure commuter cyclists away from the towpath. Discussions will probably resume once the Canal and River Trust has appointed its new Strategic Routes Coordinator. If you know anybody who might want to apply for this post then please refer them to https://www.britishwaterways.candidata.co.uk/view.aspx?JobID=312

12) Hawley Wharf redevelopment proposals

Earlier this year Camden Council rejected a planning application for a huge development on top of the canal. A revised application has been submitted, with significant changes and concessions, and this has been reported as a victory for People Power. But do these changes go far enough and will the scheme enhance or exploit the canal? Please contact me if you want to view the planning documentation.

13) CASS Student Project (London Met University)

We have been approached by a senior design lecturer at the London Met University, who wants to introduce her students to people with local knowledge of the canal. This is part of a project that teaches students to design responsibly. They need to understand good and bad examples of regeneration projects in real life. Please contact me if you are interested in helping with this.

14) IKEA floating exhibition

Earlier this month, IKEA staged a floating showroom on the canal below Danbury Street. Tickets were sold out before the event, so it could not have been classified as a publicly inclusive event like the canal festival, and very few people knew about it in advance. It has caused very mixed reactions amongst canal users. Passing walkers found it novel and colourful, especially when illuminated, but it was less than convenient for boaters who lost their turning circle above the lock. It might be worth discussing this at our next meeting, as it is quite a subjective topic whether a conservation area needs illuminated assistance, or whether it is right to sublet parts of a highway, but one question we should be asking straightaway is "why are we not making better use of the purpose-built Plaza for events like this?".

15) Canal Park at Hackney Cut

This was discussed at our last meeting and details will be published in the minutes. Meanwhile please visit this page if you want to find out more http://friendsofregentscanal.org/features/olympics/legacy/canal-park-leaflet.html

16) Consultation on residential mooring proposals at Noel Road

The Canal and River Trust has mooted proposals to convert the Islington Visitor Moorings into residential moorings. An informal consultation is underway, but early feedback from the immediate residents and from boaters across the spectrum is that this is the wrong location for residential mooring. There are strong feelings that the correct solution is better enforcement of the existing rules, a revival of this site for long range visitors, and provision of longer term mooring elsewhere along the canal. If the enforcement officers are on an uphill struggle to enforce the rules then is it really appropriate to abandon the rules? Or should we be finding better ways of supporting them under the new charity regime? This will probably be raised at the user group meeting on 17th October.

Best wishes,
Ian Shacklock
Chair, Friends of Regent's Canal

29th September 2012



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