Why not use barges?

Published: 14 May, 2010

• THE access ramp to the Regent’s Canal at Danbury Street in Islington is being rebuilt by British Waterways (BW), and, rather than use the canal and barges for the equipment and materials, Islington Council has been persuaded by BW to completely close Danbury Street for a number of weeks. 
Any rubble so far excavated has not been dropped into a barge on the canal, but into skips on Danbury Street in the otherwise almost empty BW compound that blocks the busy road.
There is piling equipment and a few lengths of steel on the road, but nothing that could not be put onto a barge. Of course, all the equipment and materials could have been brought to the site by canal, and that would have taken a few large HGVs off Islington’s roads.
Work in a conservation area on the 200-year-old ramp has not been fully consulted on with locals and canal users, nor has it been given planning consent.
All too often British Waterways ploughs ahead with construction work and claims it is “permitted development”. But its permitted development powers are strictly limited, and it cannot do anything it likes. To circumvent planning law, BW has conned Islington, but I have told Islington planners that they should look into it more carefully rather than taking British Waterways’ word for it.
It is not even a worthwhile scheme, as the rebuilding of the ramp will include steps to separate pedestrians from cyclists, but families with buggies and disabled people in wheelchairs will have to share the new ramp with speeding cyclists.
One advantage of insisting that British Waterways follows the legal procedures of planning applications is that there would be consultation locally (residents, canal users, cyclists and pedestrians) and a much better scheme may have been the result. Another advantage is that two large trees may not have been felled.
Of course, it could also mean that a duff scheme such as this is rejected, and commuter cyclists are given an alternative route (Noel Street, for instance) and do not have to use the access ramp and canal towpath. Leisure cyclists will still be welcome to visit the canal and they can share the existing ramp with pedestrians.
DEL BRENNER
Regent’s Network and a member of London Waterways Commission