Uncle Dave Cameron, our esteemed PM, has been talking about the ‘Big Society’ ever since he moved into the seat of power and about how we need to get together to help each other by volunteering in various capacities.
Recent developments
Steve keeps win for second year
Let’s face it – there are some people on the river who regard locks as an interruption to their day – an annoying waste of time when they could be charging along the river in their gin palaces, breaking the speed limit and causing a good deal of nuisance.
Let’s go back to the future
Block off river crossing at Walton Lane to traffic — there was no link in the ’50s, says resident Doug Myers
Locks: The key moment
I went along to the River Users’ Group Eight meeting on Tuesday at the Thames Motor Yacht Club in Molesey and was delighted to hear chairman Mike Shefras announce that after a lot of haggling with the Environment Agency the group had secured an undertaking that no more lock houses would be let for the next year.
Fair weather sailors? Not at Desborough.
We’re a hardy lot, us sailors, you know – especially when we’ve been denied access to our favourite sport for any length of time.
Lock keeper cost cuts in the spotlight
I was rather encouraged to see that a London MP had put down an Early Day Motion to bring the vexed question of the future of resident lock keepers on the non-tidal Thames into the public spotlight.
Road will drive us round the bend – or not
Now here’s a dilemma. I’ve been a staunch supporter of the plans for a new bridge in Walton ever since the idea was first mooted. I urged Surrey County Council to stop faffing about and get on with it.
Seeing red over safety
I thought I’d take a look at the progress being made on the construction of the new river crossing at Walton on Sunday morning by going to the Surrey County Council webcam.
An oarsome relationship
I knew from a very young age that I loved the water. It didn’t matter whether it was pottering about in a small rowing dinghy on the Thames at Twickenham where I was born or flinging myself through breaking waves on the beach at Holland on Sea in Essex where we used to stay with my uncle and aunt most summers – I just loved the water.
Basingstoke Canal restored
Canal and waterway restoration seems to have taken off in the past couple of decades with more and more waterways being put back into public usage – and I take my hat off to all those hardy volunteers who put their backs (and quite often their own money) into this kind of environmental reconstruction.