Rosy mist of nostalgia

IT RATTLES me when I read of the disastrous decline in canal infrastructure since the emergence of CaRT. It's as though some folk are looking at the past through a rosy mist of nostalgia that never even existed, writes Eric Weiss.

The canals began their decline back in the 1830s with the advent of steam locomotion. The fact that they were built on the back of poverty and cheap labour serves little but to magnify the glaring disconnect between the time and conditions then and the lazy leisure pursuits to which they are now put.

Never designed as national plaything

The canals were never designed to be a national plaything or the private hobby of thirty odd thousand boat owners paying a grand a year for their enjoyment (and seasonal at that for the most part) but that is what they have become: 33,000 out of a population of 68,000,000 that is about the size of a crowd for a football match. They are an ex-commercial transport system. But they need to be a lot more if they are to survive.

Now imagine what if there were no canals as such and someone wanted to build a private enterprise money-making project extending to 2,000 miles of waterway and infrastructure and to make it pay, asked for a licence fee to cover the cost and generate the profit? Think it would happen? It would probably cost more than the average narrowboat for a licence just for the privilege to get afloat and get a resounding corporate ‘I'm out' from the Dragons Den jokers, never mind enamouring support from cash up front shareholders.

Have to be realistic

We have to be realistic. We live in the now but can impact on the Future.

I am not a CaRTophile by any means although I am a volunteer, but some people I read are distinctly CaRTophobic in outlook, seeking only to blame anything and everything on the suits, instead of putting their shoulders to the shovel and getting involved enough in a positive way. I suggest we could all start by looking inward for a kick-off.

Look at the number of boater splinter-groups that exist: rather than welding as one forceful and authoritative body, we have a motley collection of vested interest groups ranging from the ‘aloof' to the ‘underprivileged', all pursuing their own narrow interests.

It is this' big-frog little pond' mentality that makes the work of canal preservation and regeneration that much more difficult and ensures the longevity of unaccountable Quangosim as the solution.