Little hope for the Monty

DAVE HANCOCK seems to be rather pessimistic about the restoration of the Monty. Unfortunately so are we, writes Ruth Cragg.

It was the powers-that-be that stopped full restoration when cash was available in the 1980s—long before the Friends existed, and also long before the eco excuse was first used by BW to prevent fast restoration and boats making full use of a restored Montgomery.

Nowadays the canal is being restored only slowly as the very expensive eco considerations must be put first and the pretty weeds and anything else you might think of preserved at all costs—(the above picture is of the expensive Aston Nature Reserve) though if they are the wrong weeds according to the book, the book-taught BW ecologists will want them removed even if they have been there for most of the life of the canal.

Conflict

Against this background we have the conflict between those who have always put time and effort into restoring the canal (like WRG and SUCS) and the desires of the 'it's pretty and biodiversity leave it alone' group who seem to have a volume of complaints to the media and the ear of BW inversely proportional to their actual physical efforts.

This, of course suits those who own the canal as it means they can support restoration while only letting it move very slowly forward if at all, due to costs, lack of money, requirements due to various rules mostly invented in the last few years and so on.

New raft of requirements

The result of this is that like Dave, we don't reckon the canal will open to the border in the next many years no matter how much the volunteers try. (Bless them for their effort!) Even if it gets to the border the Welsh nature mob on the other side have laid out a whole new raft of requirements for restoration/usage of its next bit to connect with the Welshpool section, these including no water running down the canal from England to pollute the Welsh part—all the water therefore coming from the Tanat feeder that often near dries up around now.

Prospects not good

All in all the prospects are not good unless the current ideas about eco, health and safety and the rest are turned round—just as the more sane world pre 1990 when back pumping and all the rest was allowed, was turned round to give what we have today.

Maybe it will, for history has a habit of repeating itself. One can hope.