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January 2011

The Magazine of theWest Riding Branch

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Contents

Greetings from the Branch Chairman......................................................3Opportunities...........................................................................................5Advertising in ‘The Mile Post’................................................................6World News Today…..............................................................................7‘A Warm Welcome!’ ............................................................................11The Mile Post.........................................................................................11North Riding Branch ............................................................................12How to Find A Secure Mooring!...........................................................14The Annual General Meeting of the IWA.............................................16West Riding Branch...............................................................................16The Annual General Meeting of the......................................................17IWA North East and Yorkshire Region.................................................17Map showing location of meeting venue...............................................18Committee Members 2010 / 2011.........................................................19Programme of Events for 2010/11.........................................................20

IWA Headquarters .Registered OfficeThe Inland Waterways AssociationIsland HouseMoor RoadCHESHAMHP5 1WATelephone - 01494 783453 Web site www.waterways.org.ukNOTE: The views expressed in this publication are not necessarilythose of The Inland Waterways Association or of The West RidingBranch. They are, however, published as being of interest to our mem-bers and readers.

Front cover.‘’The Three Chairmen’! From left to right. Clive Henderson - IWA NationalChairman, Peter Scott - North East Region Chairman, Elaine Scott - West Rid-ing Branch Chairman.

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Greetings from the Branch Chairman

Happy New Year to you all. I hope you all had a good time over thefestive season and were not too badly hit by bad weather. The canals weregood for walking and cycling once the weather warmed up, but even withthe Christmas gap in the stoppage programme most canals were impass-able with ice over 6” (150 mm) reported in many places.

Elsewhere in this Milepost you will find a list of tasks for which we arelooking for helpers. There will be several tasks advertised during the yearon the meeting notice boards, the web site, and in Milepost. Do have alook and see if there is anything you think you could help with. Very fewwill require you to be on the committee, although we would welcomemore committee members. The priority is to get the tasks carried out.Some tasks require attendance at social meetings but many can be donefrom home at a time to suit you.

Ice on the Trent and Mersey Canal at Acton Bridge,

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We are a membership organisation. This means that we rely on themembers to do the work of the IWA thus saving costs of paid staff. Ifyou have a few hours to spare during the year to help, we will be verygrateful.

To save money on postage we try and send things electronically wherepossible. As some of us joined the IWA before the days of email it ispossible that your email address has not been recorded. If you do not getelectronic communication from us, but would like to do so, please sendan email to westriding@waterways,org.uk and we will put you on the list.The main communications are a reminder for the next social meeting andhead office bulletins. It is also possible to receive Milepost in .pdf formatinstead of hard copy. If you would prefer that again let us know.

Social Meetings

We have a raffle at our social meetings to raise money to cover the hireof the hall etc. In the past the prizes have been bought out of the takings,however from January 2011 we are asking for donations of gifts for theraffle, so if you have anything suitable, please bring it along to the nextmeeting. If we have too many prizes they will be carried forward tosubsequent meetings.

Events

We will be having displays at several locations during the year. The mainstand and gazebo will be at Skipton during the May bank holiday week-end and the National Festival at Burton (note date 28-31 JULY 2011,which is earlier than the last few years). We will also have displays atThwaites Mill in Leeds and other venues and events during the year. Ifyou could help man these displays even for half an hour do let us know.Dates will appear when confirmed by the organisers.

Elaine Scott.

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Opportunities

There are various opportunities for you to exercise your abilities. Thesewill be advertised on the boards at meetings, in Mile Post and on the website.If you feel you would like to take advantage of any of the opportunities,please contact me or one of the committee.There is no age limit, no time limit, no need to be on the committee.

If you would like to share the task with someone, that’s fine. Opportuni-ties particularly suitable for sharing are marked *.

Web Master

Requirements Internet Access, preferably using broadband General familiarity with computer use

Task To keep the Branch page of the IWA web site up to dateby adding events, news and the electronic version ofMilepost magazine (3 times per year)

Adding any additional news items and other items of interest. Remove old material as required Produce short report for the Branch committee say three

times a year

Time needed To start with, some time to get acquainted with the pro-grams used, say half a day training then some practice.

Normally half an hour 3 times a year to upload Milepost,plus 3 hours to update events and any additional timeneeded to keep the site fresh, say an hour a month.

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Events List Co-ordinator *

Requirements Internet Access, preferably using broadband General familiarity with computer use

Task Look for events connected with the waterways in theBranch area, walks, cycle rides, boats trip, waterwaysactivities.

List these and send details to Web Master for inclusion onthe web site and Mile Post editors

Time needed about half a hour a month

Display finder* - best shared among several people

Requirements No special requirements

Task Look for suitable locations to display information about waterways. List these and send details to a committee member

Time needed Not a lot. Finding locations as you go about your area onyour normal business. Time taken to let us know about it.

Elaine Scott 07980 953880 or 0114230187 elaine@homescott.free-online.co.uk

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Advertising in ‘The Mile Post’.

If your organization would like to advertise in a future edition of ‘TheMile Post’ please contact Bob or Tricia Laing on 01274 581800 or e-mailboblaing@blueyonder.co.uk

A full page advertisement is £40 and a half page is £20. Over 500copies of the magazine are posted to IWA West Riding Branch membersand are also distributed at various waterway events throughout the year

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WORLD NEWS TODAY …According to Today today, today’s most important happenings are thesnow, the Bristol murder investigation, why the Government hasincreased VAT, and Nigel Pargetter telling us how successful his funeralwas. Here’s an alternative Today as conceived by a notional waterways-oriented guest editor.

The Weather…Icy patches still keep 80% of the system closed to traffic for the fourthconsecutive week, in what could be the longest canal freeze-up for almostforty years. Ice breaking is left to individual boater’s discretion, without‘official’ intervention or advice, and certainly no gritting-boats. There isa continuing debate between those who move and those who don’t, aboutwho should be protecting vulnerable boats with ice-boards or similar, andwhether breaking the ice just makes it twice as thick and laminated forthe next boat tomorrow.

It’s in these wintry conditions, not always as bad as currently, thatplanned maintenance work is traditionally done. Contractors are cold, theice gets in the way, the work is more hazardous, there is less daylight thanthe normal working day, and it’s a lot more expensive than similar worksin warmer times. But scheduled summer stoppages give us cries ofdissent for restricting the use of the boating licence. What would we do,I wonder, if we were running the waterways trying to make the most ofthe money we had? Which links neatly to the next item …

Governance ...The Spending Review means that British Waterways have 19% lessgovernment money than they had last year and, as there is other moneyfrom waterway users and from properties, BW say this will translate intoan effective cut of about 12%. Their press release quotes chairman TonyHales as saying “it would be unrealistic to expect British Waterways tobe exempt from cuts in public spending and we will have to makedifficult decisions” .Obviously it’s insufficient money, and equally obviously an IWAcampaign directed at more waterways funding at the expense of … what?

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… would be swamped by all those other campaigns for local services, fortuition fees, for health, for sensible train fares, … And campaigners forthese other worthy causes might ask us why we spent a million poundson those useless bollards, another million per year on licenceenforcement, another million on the board's salaries, and then there's themarketing department, and all those office people we found we didn'tneed when last year's 10% savings had to be found. Then again BW nowhave some newly-recruited volunteer co-ordinators: IWA welcomes anew attitude to encourage volunteering, but whether having newpermanent employees to make the new approach work feels an odd wayto be going about it.

We have to do better than a token protest, and the best bet is the 'least-worst' option of the charity-replacement for BW, which is now a done-deal with government to takeover full responsibility in April 2012. IWAhas been, and has been best-qualified to be, the voice of the waterwaysin discussions with Government. On this we're not one-of-manywaterway organisations, and our members' subscriptions have been usedfor real influence on a debate crucial to the future of the waterways.

At our November meeting, National Chairman Clive Henderson gave usan update on these developments, and it was a good opportunity to pointout all the potential pitfalls from our Yorkshire vantage point, well awayfrom the Westminster Village. From here it's not obvious that Clive cansuccessfully ride both horses – being the waterway users' voice asObserver on the BW board and leading an independent IWA. Are we, hewas asked, now to be muted in our criticisms of BW to get the best dealfrom government, and would that really be best for the Waterways. Andif we are so much on the same side, have we (IWA) a future as a distinctorganisation separate from the New Waterways Charity.

We shall see, over the next few weeks, how many years a long-termfunding commitment' turns out to be: ten years would be so much betterthan the annual settlement, to make the all the work on transitionworthwhile, but there will be those in the Treasury happier to nibble thisaway to five years or less. There has to be a tipping point somewhere thatpushes us (us the IWA) into opposition to the whole reform package.

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And for me, failing to include the Environment Agency rivers inside thenew charity, at its beginning, needs to be a trigger to withdraw all IWAco-operation.

Remembering all those million-pound extravagances, the new Charityhas to be different from BW. They may well have transformedthemselves from enemies to friends over thirty years, but that's just thestart of an accelerating need to actually do the job well, and to do it withpeople who have the skills, the knowledge, the understanding of thewaterways as core prerequisites.

There are just too many examples of users' total exasperation at BWmanagement not knowing their job: and every example is just anexample, but this one caused yet another sigh of disappointment, if notsurprise. The autumn Leeds user-group was debating the state of towingpath vegetation and whether two-to-three years' growth of bushes had orhadn't been allowed to take hold: management said it shouldn't havehappened, and users said it had. To resolve it, BW would ask theircontractors. And there's the rub. The job is to manage the state of thecanal and if the work is given to contractors, then the management job isto know if they are doing their work properly, or not, before signing theirinvoices.

… and TaxesBW propose to increase the standard, 12 month pleasure boat licence feeby 5.1% from April 2011 - that's before VAT is added - This is a 2%increase above the current value of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) andthey say is expected to generate additional waterway maintenance budgetof £850,000 for 2011/12’. Beyond 2011, their business plans for thefollowing two years expect licence price increases of 2% plus CPI-inflation each year. The consultation runs to the end of January at:http://tinyurl.com/BW2011licences

Nigel Pargetter ...… if he was neither fictional nor dead, would be just the sort of newmember we could be recruiting to the IWA. We need to appeal to all thosewith concerns for the environment, and where this overlaps with

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understanding of leisure industries and transport, so much the better. Thebest recommendation is always a personal one, so those friends or familyto whom you speak of the magic of that canal sunrise, are ideal newrecruits. The satisfaction of membership is in helping the waterways –we're not a Family Rail card and we don't save the membership fee withdiscounts, although some of our commercial members do special dealsfor their fellow-members:http://tinyurl.com/IWAoffersIf we can persuade new people to think of about three pounds per monthas their contribution to the magic of the waterways, we the IWA can makegood use of the money: Yes there is a form, and yes it does have lots ofdifferent subscription classes on it each with their own different annualamount. But monthly is easier to understand, and we really will put themoney to good use. We might even make the form a bit easier over thenext year!So come on Nigel, please sign here … (For those not addicted to theArchers, the fictional Nigel died falling from a roof in the sixtiethanniversary episode on 2nd January.)

Recycling… an old idea from London Region magazine February 1979:“membership recruitment is much better conducted face-to-face, butwhy, for instance, do we not print the membership application details inthe magazine? When I've finished reading the magazine, I leave it in thedentist's or the doctor's waiting room - or on a train seat or in the bus. It'sa damned sight more interesting than Country Life or last Tuesday'sEvening News!”So if you are reading this to forget about an impending filling, details ofjoining us are on the web site below, or call 01494 783453http://tinyurl.com/joinIWA

New Year HonoursWe are delighted to report that IWA Vice President Sonia Rolt is madeOBE, and IWA Vice President David Suchet is made CBE in the NewYear's Honours list.

Peter Scott - Region Chairman and IWA National Trustee

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‘A Warm Welcome!’

The West Riding Branch extends a warm welcome to members who havejoined us since the last Mile Post. We look forward to meeting you at oneof our monthly meetings or to hearing from you.

***************The Pocklington Canal.

The talk at our October meeting is to be given by Paul Waddington fromthe Pocklington Canal Society. One way that the society raises funds isto collect foil. If any of our members wish to collect foil and bring it tothe meeting with them, I am sure that Paul will be only too happy to takeit away with him.

***************Programme of Events.

Does anyone in the branch know of anyone who gives canal relatedtalks. Does anyone have any ideas for subjects for future talks at ourmeetings. If so please contact Katy or Alastair Sayles, whose contactdetails are on the back page.

***************The Mile Post.

Is there anyone out there who could help the branch by writing some-thing for inclusion in the Milepost. Have you been on an interestingboating trip? Tell us about it.. Is there something waterways related youfeel strongly about? Write us a letter about it.. Any amusing stories? Tellus all! E-mail us at boblaing@blueyonder.co.uk , hand it to one of us, orpost it to any committee member before the end of April. We lookforward to hearing from you.

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North Riding Branch

On 1st January 2011 a new branch of the IWA came into being. The‘North Riding Branch’ will be added to the West Riding Branch, the EastYorkshire Branch, and the South Yorkshire & the Dukeries Branch, all ofwhich are part of the North East and Yorkshire Region of the IWA. Thenew branch grew out of the Ouse/Ure Corridor Section looking after whatis essentially a rivers' orientated part of West Riding Branch’s area

The branch area stretches from Goole in the East to Ripon in the West andincludes the River Ouse, River Foss, the River Ure and the Ripon Canal.Added to this is an area stretching as far north as Tyne and Wear.The mapof the original North Riding covers the geography, with an additional partSouth of York, and north of Teeside, which includes the southern corridordescribed above. The original county stopped at York itself.

Just over 150 IWA members currently live in the centre of the new brancharea and have by now received the ‘Northern Navigation News’, andhave been asked, if they prefer to remain with West Riding Branch, tocontact me directly. Similarly if any other members would prefer to joinNorth Riding Branch contact me. My contact e-mail is:tonymartin451@yahoo.co.uk OR telephone: 07588-236-597. Membersfrom all Branches are of course welcome to join us at all our Branchactivities.

Our Main Activities

On the May Bank Holiday Weekend each year, we hold an open day atCastle Mills Lock, York. In 2011 it is on Saturday 30th April. We sharea gazebo with the River Foss Society, and, water levels permitting – wehave a couple of boats cruising up and down the navigable section of theRiver Foss, so that the public can enjoy this unique stretch of waterwayin the centre of York. We also take an active part in the Two Rivers

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Festival in York each July. This starts with the popular Dragon BoatRaces, which are organised by the local Rotary Club. Again we share agazebo with the River Foss Society.

Throughout the year we hold regular open meetings with a topic speaker,usually at St Olave’s Church Hall, off Marygate. We also publish thepopular newsletter, Northern Navigation News, every two months or so.

We also hold bi-monthly Open Committee Meetings at which all arewelcome. These are often held in the cafe at Linton Lock (for eveningmeetings) and in York at Clements Hall, Nunthorpe Road, York, YO231BW for day-time ones.

The next Committee Meeting will be on Wednesday 26th January 2011 at11.30am in the Meeting Room.

Castle Mills Lock, York.

A seven member lock keeping team of local IWA members operates thelock on behalf of the City of YorkCouncil. This enables suitable craft touse the navigable section of the RiverFoss. This service has provedincreasingly popular with visitingboaters to York.

Please do not hesitate to contact TonyMartin on the above number and e-mailaddress for more information about thenew North Riding Branch.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours sincerely,

Tony Martin (Chair)

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How to Find A Secure Mooring!After helping to get our local MP elected during the general election, Janand I decided to amuse ourselves by taking our narrowboat, Rivendell, tothe Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham as part of our‘summer’ cruising.

This would involve us being in Birmingham for the first week in Octoberand getting back to our home base in Ripon before the winter stoppagesstart in early November.

We knew that the logistics would be made more interesting by thetendency for the Trent, Aire and Ouse to go into flood during the autumnand BW’s decision to close Linton lock for early gate replacement in thesecond half of September and the first half of October. Reduced hours ofdaylight at this time of year (and reduced lockkeeper hours) also makefinding the right tides more tricky! Oh, and there are scheduled closureson the Aire and Calder during October. And they think running thecountry is difficult!

We prepared by asking some friends who moor in Gas Street Basin tofind us a mooring for the duration (which they did) and inviting the newWaterways Minister, Richard Benyon, to visit our boat during the confer-ence, to which we got a definite maybe! (After all, he had only just beenappointed)

After one of the worst ‘Indian Summers’ in living memory we arrived atthe bottom of the Aston flight in the pouring rain which did not let upuntil after the top of Farmer’s Bridge.

We had been warned that, during the conference, boat access throughBrindley Place would be restricted and the boat subject to a police search,including by a police dog. At the top of Farmer’s Bridge was a BW noticeto this effect, but fortunately it did not come into force until next day. Thethought of a soaking wet police dog scampering through our narrowboatwas not attractive! It was instructive that Broad Street, one ofBirmingham’s main thoroughfares, was totally closed to vehicles for the

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duration of the conference but boats were allowed to pass through Brind-ley Place. That is what I call getting the priorities right!

We moored on the Worcester Bar, which was inside the canal securityzone, and had the benefit of an armed police RIB patrolling, foot patrolspast the boat every hour, a helicopter overhead and the main policecontrol centre, on the sixth floor of an adjacent office block, overlookingour moorings! We did not feel the need to chain on! I suspect that any ofthe conference delegates that were higher than the fourth floor of theconference hotel had further to go to get in than we did!

Richard Benyon, the Waterway Minister, did take time out from theconference to visit and we arranged for him to meet a variety of peoplewho live and work around Gas Street Basin and Brindley Place. He hadnot been there before and was very impressed. Hopefully he went awaybelieving that the canal system was worth looking after!

In better weather we set off on the return trip, with the Trent in fine order.Unfortunately on arriving in Newark we discovered that the Lintonstoppage had been extended to the end of October, so who knows wherewe will end up. All part of the joys of the Inland Waterways!

Bowman Bradley

Waterways Minister Ri-chard Benyon meetingCathy Hytner, TomNightingale and PeterCotgreach, all residentsof Gas Street Basin, withNB Rivendell in the back-ground.

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The Annual General Meeting of the IWAWest Riding Branch

This will be held at approximately 8.15pm (following a briefintroductory presentation at 8pm) on FRIDAY 11th MARCH2011 at the Social Club, Top Floor, Centenary House, NorthStreet, LEEDS LS2 8JS.

Agenda

1. Apologies for absence2. Approval of minutes of the previous AGM and any matters arising from these minutes.3. Report from Branch Chairman (Elaine Scott.)4. Financial Report.5. Election of members of the committee.6. Any other items requested by members of the branchprovided the branch chairman was notified in writing of theitem at least six weeks prior to the AGM (28 January 2011)(*)

(*)Elaine Scott3 Moorbank DriveSheffieldS10 5THt: 0114 2301870e: elaine@homescott.free-online.co.uk

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The Annual General Meeting of theIWA North East and Yorkshire Region.

This will be held at 7.30pm on FRIDAY 1st APRIL 2010 at theSt Olave's Hall, Saint Olave's Church, Off Marygate, YORK

YO30 7BHAgenda.1. Apologies for absence2. Approval of minutes of the 2010 AGM and any matters arising from these minutes3. Report from Region Chairman and National IWA Trustee (Peter Scott)4. Financial report5. Election of members of the committee6.Any items requested by members of the region provided the regionchairman was notified in writing of the item at least six weeks prior to theAGM (18February 2011) (*)7. Any business not notified on this agenda (at the discretion of thechairman - NOTE that no decisions may be made on this business).(*)

This meeting will be followed by the AGM of the North Riding BranchClive Henderson National Chairman will be in attendance

Peter Scott3 Moorbank DriveSheffieldS10 5THt: 0114 2301870 e: peter.scott@waterways.org.uk

David Swabey18 Scottow DriveGreat AytonMiddlesbroughTS9 6DRt: 01642 722910

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Map showing location of meeting venueCentenary House, North Street, Leeds LS2 8AY

LS2 8AY

Bus Station

TrainStation

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ChairmanElaine Scott3 Moorbank DriveSheffield S10 5THHome 0114 230 1870

SecretaryIan Moore2 Eric Street,BramleyLeeds. LS13 1ETMobile 07989 112581E-mail westriding@waterways.org.uk

TreasurerWilliam Jowitt35,Lowfield Crescent.SilsdenBD20 0QEHome 01535 657256

Membership SecretaryChris Pinder152 High StreetYeadonLeeds LS19 7ABHome 01132 509371

Minutes SecretaryLiz Pinder152 High StreetYeadonLeeds LS19 7ABHome 01132 509371

Mile Post EditorBob Laing25 Bankfield RoadShipley BD18 4AJHome 01274 581800E-mail boblaing@blueyonder.co.uk

Mile Post EditorTricia Laing25 Bankfield RoadShipley BD18 4AJHome 01274 581800

Committee memberRegional ChairmanPeter Scott3 Moorbank DriveSheffield S10 5THHome 0114 230 1870

Non Committee Posts

Meeting Co-ordinatorsKatie & Alastair SaylesHome 0113 393 4517E-mail: kandal@btinternet.com

Telephone contactAlistair FurnissHome 0113 253 9401

Northern Rivers Officer(Tyne, Wear & Tees).John Reeve10 Perth GroveStockton-on-TeesCleveland TS18 5BFHome 01642 580350

Committee Members 2010 / 2011

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Programme of Events for 2010/11.All meetings take place at 8.00pm on the second Friday

of the month, in the top floor Social Club,Centenary House, North Street, Leeds, LS2 8AY.

11th February 11 Chinese Canals by Liam D’Arcy Brown

11th March 11 AGM

8th April 11 RSPB at Fairburn Ings Nature Reserveby Richard Amende

9th September 11 “Aire Valley Action Group, Leeds” by RachelClunas, BW and partners

14th October 11 “Pocklington Canal” by Paul Waddington (Please read note on page 11.)

11th November 11 Still to be arranged

9th December 11 Christmas Social and Members’ slides

Talks arranged by Alastair and Katy Sayles, 32 Pymont Drive,Woodlesford, Leeds LS26 8WA. Tel 0113 393 4517

Email: kandal@btinternet.com

All the meetings organised by the West Riding Branch are open andeveryone is invited. Any member of the general public is allowed to attendand members are invited to bring friends.

The Inland Waterways Association campaigns for the Conservation, Use,Maintenance, Restoration and Development of the Inland Waterways,which are part of our heritage, and are there for the benefit of everyone.