Youth charity to ‘adopt’ canal stretch for waterways project

British Waterways has joined forces with Bradford-based young people’s charity, Joint Activities and Motor Education Service (James), whose members have agreed to help look after part of the waterway between Bingley and Shipley.

The charity works with disadvantaged young people in Bradford with the aim of steering them towards gainful leisure and training.

The stretch being adopted includes the listed Bingley Five Rise Locks, the World Heritage Site of Saltaire, Dowley Gap Aqueduct and Hirst Lock on the outskirts of Shipley.

The scheme, the first in Yorkshire, will run for 12 months and could be extended if successful.

British Waterways says it cannot afford to give waterways the level of care they deserve.

The water supervisor for the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, Paul House, said: “There’s a great deal of public support out there for the canals and we now need to embrace that to safeguard them for the future.

“We’re really excited to be working with such an established charity group as James and it’s great that they’ve seized an opportunity like this to encourage young people to care for their local waterside environment.

“The tasks that the group are working on are fun, active and will bring those additional benefits and improvements to our yearly maintenance programme.”

Kevin Metcalfe, operations manager for James, said: “This canal adoption scheme is a great opportunity for our young people to gain valuable work experience in an interactive way in order to ‘up skill’ themselves before moving onto employment somewhere else. Our office is located next to the canal so having an increased sense of ownership will give us a sense of pride that we’re making a real difference to our local environment for the benefit of others.”

Volunteers with James will work on tasks including towpath repairs, painting lock gates, repairing or installing benches and fencing, recording and improving wildlife habitats, running events such as guided walks and heritage recording.

British Waterways has produced a Waterway Adoption handbook which gives details of how to get involved in the scheme.

The booklet says that adopting is a two-way process and that the agreement between British Waterways and the adopter is an “agreement binding in honour only, it is not intended to be a legally binding contract and may be cancelled at any time at the discretion of either party”.

British Waterways said there was no intention to create any form of employment or contractual relationship.

The state-funded organisation is hoping to attract more volunteers onto the waterways as it moves towards charitable status.

The handbook is available from www.waterscape.com/volunteer

Groups or businesses interested in finding out more about waterway towpath adoptions should e-mail [email protected]

Businesses are among the pioneers getting involved in adopting stretches of canal.

In Birmingham staff at HFC Bank have adopted a stretch of the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal.

Bank staff performed an initial review of their stretch and decided to focus on the removal of graffiti, painting locks and bridges, removing weeds and installing benches.

The bank set up a warden system where volunteers regularly walk the waterway to ensure it remains clean and tidy and is not attracting unruly elements who might want to add to the graffiti.

A British Waterways spokesman said of the Birmingham scheme: “A stretch of canal is now receiving the level of care and maintenance BW has long wanted to give it but couldn’t afford to.”

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