Sun, July 25 2010
By John Garvey, Reporter
Fun in the sun as Trust aims to secure the future of Kennet and Avon Canal for the coming generations
RECORD numbers of people flocked to Newbury’s Waterways Festival on Sunday.
Working boats from as far afield as Stoke-on-Trent, boat rides, duck racing, live music, sideshows and stalls helped pull in the crowds.
But there was a serious message, too.
This year’s festival celebrates the 200th anniversary of the completion of the water route from Reading to Bristol and was offially opened by Newbury Mayor Ian Grose.
Festival director and chairman of the Kennet and Avon Trust’s Newbury branch, Rob Dean, said: “In the 1960s the canal was closed and legally listed as a ‘remaindered waterway,’ meaning that it could be allowed to fall into ruin.
“The Trust restored it and it was reopened 20 years ago – but no one changed the legal designation. This is important now because public spending is about to fall off a cliff and the Government is changing the status of British Waterways to that of a charity. Therefore it must be upgraded now to the status of ‘cruiseway.’ That will help protect it for the people of Newbury for the next 200 years.”
The new waterways minister, Newbury MP Richard Benyon, has vowed to begin the process and Mr Dean said: It may seem like a legal technicality but it’s about protecting the canal’s future. The job of the Trust is to protect, enhance and promote the canal and that’s what we’re doing today and it seems we have record crowds.”
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