Everyone's a winner
Following a campaign started some three years ago by narrowboatworld, a symbolic repair of this old accommodation bridge has taken place using, in part, Waterways Recovery Group (WRG) volunteers.
Maintenance backlog
Bridge 80 became a 'cause célèbre' because it symbolised British Waterways' reluctance to maintain its infrastructure which has led to a maintenance backlog of hundreds of millions of pounds. Whilst British Waterways seemed happy to invest (and lose) taxpayers money by investing in property ventures, it never seemed to be able to find enough money for its central purpose of maintaining its waterways.
Major structural work to Bridge 80 and neighbouring Bridge 79 have been carried out by CaRT's contractor May Gurney. This has been followed by extensive brickwork repairs and repointing by WRG. Due to the nature of the work, daily two hour stoppages starting at 5pm have been in place with the possibility of other ad-hoc delays during the day.
The photos taken on Saturday show that repairs to Bridge 79 are complete and Bridge 80 looks almost ready for scaffolding to be removed.
Signs
It would seem that everyone wants to be associated with Bridge 80. Some signs say that Canal & River Trust and May Gurney are working in partnership to carry out 'major repairs to improve the condition and prevent future deterioration of two structures'. These compete for attention with others which say that The Inland Waterways Association's Waterways Recovery Group are 'Volunteers Restoring Britain's Inland Waterways'.
Even CaRT's predecessor, British Waterways manages to get a look in. The observant will spot that whilst May Gurney and CaRT are working in partnership at the top of some signs it says one should contact British Waterways in case of emergencies or for enquires at the bottom!
Waterways Recovery Group
So is the way forward that WRG switches from waterway restoration to waterway maintenance? It seems not, and its involvement in the Bridge 79/80 repair is very much a one off.
The WRG committee's view is that they should not be covering for British Waterways' and now CaRT's failure to maintain its own structures. However, they agreed to undertake the Bridge 79/80 repair task to help CaRT understand working with volunteers such that it can develop its own teams.
Winners
One thing is certain, without the efforts of BW, CaRT, May Gurney, IWA and WRG the 18th century Bridge 80 (and 79) would not have been saved for future generations.
For once, everyone's a winner.