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Cash needed to keep canal open
By Jack SommersJuly 09, 2009
A LACK of money could force parts of the Basingstoke Canal to close again, its managers fear.
The Basingstoke Canal Authority (BCA), the multi-agency organisation which looks after it, is worried money will not be available for crucial maintenance work to the locks in the canal’s Deepcut area later this year.
The canal is used by houseboat owners and recreationally by people living around it.
BCA director Ian Brown wrote in the Summer 2009 issue of Basingstoke Canal News, the magazine of the Surrey & Hampshire Canal Society.
He said: “The last year has been extremely challenging on three fronts, lack of available staff, lack of capital and revenue funding and structural failures.
“My future concern is that there simply are not enough resources available, chief of which is a critical lack of capital funding from the county council.”
The BCA is carrying out a detailed maintenance plan for the canal.
Mr Brown added: “If the money is not available then the plan will be useless and the canal navigation will quickly fall into dilapidation, especially at Deepcut.”
Work needed includes dredging and clearing overhanging trees and plants.
The BCA’s dredger ship Unity is currently in need of repair but there are no funds to do it.
Canal users warned if a tree fell into the canal it could be there for months without a boat to dredge it.
This would make that part of the canal impossible to navigate.
Mr Brown added: “Give me the capital and revenue to do the necessary maintenance such as bank protection and I will do it.
“Closing message; talk to your local politicians.”
Closed
The Deepcut and Mytchett area of the canal was closed for a period but reopened earlier this year in time for a boat rally.
The canal society organised the rally with Byfleet Boat Club and around 40 boats showed up on the last Bank Holiday Monday in May.
But a problem at Lock 28 forced some boats to moor there overnight while the issue was fixed.
The canal is jointly owned by Hampshire and Surrey county councils.
Money comes mainly from the parish and district councils that the canal flows through.
There have been problems in the past with councils agreeing how much each should pay towards the maintenance.
Councillor Alistair Clark, chairman of the Hart District Association of Parish Councils, said the councils had split their £66,000 commitment to the canal between them.
Half is paid by Hart and the other half by the parish councils and all had agreed to their shares, the Dogmersfield parish councillor said.
He said the canal was an invaluable source of leisure to people and should be maintained, but added: "It’s a tricky one. It might be that they have to find alternate source of money in the future.”
He suggested central government as a possible alternative source of funding.
The BCA is drafting new policies that will include a plan on how to manage the canal for the next 15 years.
Meanwhile the Surrey & Hampshire Canal Society, whose members often volunteer to help maintain the Basingstoke Canal, is looking for new volunteers.
An editorial in the latest Basingstoke Canal News said: “A good measure of health of a society could be obtained by dividing the number of people at the AGM by their average age.
“In its heyday the society would probably have had a figure of five or more but now it is well under one.”
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