Photo-a-Day  (Sunday, 30th July, 2023)

Another good canal pic Mick. Is it the Canal & River Trust doing the work ? We enjoy watching Canal Boat Diaries with all the trials & tribulations that can be encountered by Robbie.

Are the days of the humble wheelbarrow numbered? Nothing like saving the backs of the workers

I've been watching these little dumpers carrying the tarmac down the cut bank, but I didn't know that they are called track barrows.

HoT - most major work on the canals is now carried out by contractors - who bought up most of BW/ CRT's maintenance vessels - which they now lease back to them. However, on my canal travels, I've found that some waterway regions also have substantial numbers of their own vessels - there's big difference between our region (more) and the Midlands/ Wales (less).

I was talking to one of the workmen and he told me that the new towpath will be going all the way to Parbold now.
Original plan he said was just to go the Greater Manchester border at Appley bridge, but now Lancashire council have coughed up some money to extend it into Lancashire.

Now then this photo brings all sorts of memories to me, I can remember being sat on the train heading towards Southport, and our dad, god bless him, would say push that window up our Sally because we are coming toward Appley Bridge stinky bone works.

Joan, he was pulling your leg. Local authorities are not responsible for canal towpaths and don't pay for maintenance of them. The funding comes from the government department, DEFRA.

This is next to the Bono bone works where they used to crush bones, and get out the marrow that could be used in making jelly and glue.
The Boneo used to have a very good choir and their signature tune was Dem Bones, I'll be humming this tune all day now well what's left of it.
Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones,
Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones,
Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones,
Now shake dem skeleton bones!

The toe bone's connected to the foot bone,
The foot bone's connected to the ankle bone,
The ankle bone's connected to the leg bone,
Now shake dem skeleton bones!

The leg bone's connected to the knee bone,
The knee bone's connected to the thigh bone,
The thigh bone's connected to the hip bone,
Now shake dem skeleton bones!

Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones,
Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones,
Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones,
Now shake dem skeleton bones!

It really doesn't matter who is paying for Brucie, but it is being extended to Parbold.

As reported in Wigan Today 21st April 2023 -
The Canal and River Trust, working in partnership with Wigan Council and Transport for Greater Manchester, has secured funding from the Mayor’s Challenge Fund that will improve a stretch of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal towpath that runs for 5.5km from Ell Meadow Lock at Beech Hill to Bridge 42 at Appley Bridge on the border with West Lancashire.

QUOTE from Wigan Today: The Canal and River Trust, working in partnership with Wigan Council and Transport for Greater Manchester, has secured funding from the Mayor’s Challenge Fund that will improve a stretch of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal towpath that runs for 5.5km from Ell Meadow Lock at Beech Hill to Bridge 42 at Appley Bridge on the border with West Lancashire.
In Wigan BC's 2021 Consultation document on this scheme there was a note to say that West Lancs Council were producing plans to continue the upgrade through their area.
DEFRA, meanwhile, have just announced that they are progressively cutting their annual grant to CRT. It's a miserable sum (£52.6m) compared with the estimated £1.5bn benefit canals bring to the economy. Cutting it further- to £40m a year - will probably lead to canal closures. High-maintenance areas, such as the Wigan Flight, will receive less attention, leading to prolonged stoppages in the boating season for emergency repairs... leading to lower usage... and ideas that maybe keeping them open isn't really necessary....

I think that all this money being spent on such a project is disgusting, it isn't as though a tarmacadamed path is needed along the canal towpath.

To whoever, when you are cycling from Wigan to Appley Bridge and having a lovely smooth ride upon the new tarmacadamed towpath, which wasn't really necessary just for one or two cyclists- was it, then please do spare a thought for all the fellow humans of which those umpteen millions of pounds of money that was spent laying the path would have helped them live their lives just that little bit better - those many children lying cold and hungry on a pile of old clothes they call bed, those ex service personnel still traumatised at what they've seen and can't hold down a job because of it, pensioners on the basic state pension and others on benefits which doesn't keep up with inflation, the pensioners do get pension credit which does help and they're all grateful for the food banks, but are beginning to worry if they'll survive this coming winter with those ever increasing utility bills to pay, and the list of needy folks in this country goes on.

Gearing Up, operates from the Brick Works, Hodson Street, Wigan and provides a cycling experience for all.
It is well established that diabetes and obesity are on the rise and that any increase in disease in the UK is going to cost the NHS money.The NHS could save £319m over the next 21 years if cycling in major UK cities becomes as popular as in London, according to a report by an environmental charity.About 34,000 incidences of type 2 diabetes, stroke, breast cancer and depression would be prevented in seven key cities between 2017 and 2040, if cycling increased at the same rate as in London since the millennium, according to analysis from Sustrans, the walking and cycling charity.Cycling levels in London have more than doubled since 2000 but have remained largely static across the UK, where public transport is worse and car culture reigns.Just 34% of men and 42% of women do 150 minutes of physical activity each week, which is the minimum amount recommended by England’s chief medical officer.Physical inactivity costs the NHS about £1bn each year, rising to some £7.4bn each year when costs to wider society are included.The Sustrans report, “Transforming Cities: The potential of everyday cycling”, estimates that more than 1bn cycling trips would take place in 2040 in Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Greater Manchester and Newcastle if those cities followed London’s lead.In Greater Manchester, the mayor, Andy Burnham, has announced plans to spend £160m to build a vast network of safe paths and junctions for walking and cycling. Chris Boardman, the Olympic gold medallist who is Greater Manchester’s walking and cycling commissioner, persuaded Burnham that investment in active travel would save the NHS a far greater amount in the long run.Boardman said: “In Greater Manchester alone, 250m car journeys a year are the equivalent of a 10-minute walk. But people don’t do it because it’s not easy, attractive or safe. The way we travel now in Greater Manchester costs the NHS £500,000 a week.

“If we can enable just some of those ridiculously short trips to be made without cars, cycling and walking investment has more than paid for itself. It’s no coincidence that the majority of the world’s best and healthiest cities prioritise the movement of people over cars.”This month, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommended that city planners should develop connected travel routes that prioritise pedestrians and cyclists.Sustrans said that the substantial health benefits from increased cycling would only be possible alongside long-term political commitment and investment across government.The government’s ringfenced cycling and walking investment in England, outside London, is on a steep downward trajectory: from £2.16 per person in 2016-7, to just 37p in 2020-1.Sustrans, along with other walking and cycling organisations, wants the UK government to commit 5% of the transport budget on active travel, rising to 10% by 2025 in the next comprehensive spending review.This would amount to £17 per person annually in 2020-21 and rise to £34 per person in 2024-5 in England. In Copenhagen, where the Danish government has invested more than £35 per head on cycling and a network of segregated cycle routes on almost all main roads and bridges since 2004, 41% of work and education-related trips were made by bike in 2016.In his recent budget, the chancellor, Philip Hammond, pledged £30bn for road improvements targeted primarily at motorists. But the government has promised just £1m for the upkeep of the National Cycle Network.Xavier Brice, Sustrans’ chief executive, said: “Our report provides 34,000 reasons why governments across the UK should prioritise investment in cycling. Every part of the country is facing a physical inactivity and obesity crisis, which is why decision-makers need to get on the front foot and tackle these problems head on.

Well said Cyril. The money could be better spent. I’m not a fan of tarmac either. Weeds will eventually start pushing through, then pot holes will appear. It seems odd if it’s only laid in various stretches of the canal banks. If the paths are well used by walkers and cyclists alike there’s no need for tarmac. It does seem an extravagance at this cash strapped time.

Cyril - you're right - all those things you list should be properly funded, but it shouldn't be a case of 'either/ or'. As the Gearing Up volunteer says, encouraging folk to get out and exercise saves the Health Service money, which can be used to better purpose. But we're a wealthy country - we can afford to look after people in all conditions properly - if we choose to. Instead we have penny-wise, pound foolish politicians - look at the Grenfell disaster - it has cost £1.2bn so far (not counting compensation to victims). That's 4000 times how much the Council tried to save by using the cheaper materials which caused the loss of life. Thousands of homes could have been built with the money wasted. Sunak, going for the motorist vote, wants to cut down on restrictions on them - designed to save lives from accidents and air-borne pollution. I could go on....
Veronica - yes, maintenance will be required on the refurbished footpaths, but towpaths were made for horses, and were maintained by regularly throwing cinders on them to keep a solid surface. That practice stopped when motorised boats came into use, and the towpaths have been neglected for decades. Heavy use by walkers and cyclists does the opposite of what you claim - the unmade paths just get muddier and muddier as they're churned up.

Rev David ,If I wanted to cycle on the canal paths (which would be great I admit), the nearest to me would be to go to Ince. But that is out of the question these days and there must be thousands of people like me who are too frightened to cycle on the roads to get to the canal paths. I also no longer drive so no way I could get to the canal only by bus or train. I would have to cycle from Westhoughton
( which I used to do quite regularly)through Hindley and that is a nightmare these days. What I’m hinting at is it so economical to spend that money when only the few who live near the canals will use them? It’s not as if we live in an area with flat land like the Dutch for instance where bicycles are commonplace. Even side roads seem threatening to cyclists nowadays. I have had a couple of scares on the highway that sadly stopped me in my tracks and put the spoke in my wheels. For exercise I walk every day and swim every week instead. Cycling as much as I loved doing it is not the only exercise there is.
It must be a bugbear with all that churned up mud I can imagine and shingle wouldn’t be much use either although walkers with the correct footwear wouldn’t be phased. But is it feasible just to lay tarmac on short stretches of the canal bank? Perhaps if every village or town with the canal running through did the same it might be.
Although I’m not sure that would happen.

Well said Rev . some people just don't know that the tow path is being made to a high standard with a weed membrane and two layers of gravel, and then tarmac with a anti slip coating, so its unlikely that weeds will start pushing through.

Veronica - thanks to the canal system there is an almost flat towpath system covering large areas of the country. Within Wigan, the canal towpaths are being linked to other safe cycle routes which separate bikes from cars and eventually will enable all who want to to cycle safely around the Borough - and much further. So access to the towpath cycleways will be available to ever-greater numbers of people. Your fear of riding in mixed traffic gives the case for investing in such a system. People have mocked the works going on - for instance on Wallgate - but improving the cycling system first is the way to get people to consider cycling as an alternative for those able to make the choice.
Did you know that, once you've descended the two locks at Poolstock, the canals run on the level all the way to Manchester city centre, through Warrington, to Runcorn, and then all the way to Middlewich? The three tunnels between Preston Brook and Northwich lack towpaths, so cyclists would have to climb the hills they're built through - but otherwise the routes would be perfect for long-distance walkers and riders (or anyone out for shorter trips). The only problem is that the towpaths out in the country are not maintained to walking or cycling standards, but more and more lengths are being upgraded over the years. Every mile upgraded adds impetus to carrying on the process.

Well it does sound to have its advantages in the very distant future but not in my lifetime Rev. David especially if there are safe cycling lanes to get to the tow paths - that would be my concern just getting to them. I hope the work and the imagination to fulfil the work goes ahead for future cyclists. The only cycle lanes where I live come to an abrupt end on the A6 the last time I looked and I certainly wouldn’t want to cycle along there these days. We are not geared up at all where I live.

It's a pity the Lancaster Canal wasn't carried through to Westhoughton from Top Lock as planned, Veronica - then you'd have been able to link up safely to the Wigan cycleways.

So true David, the only ones that seem to benefit from these inquiries, such as Grenfell are lawyers.

The towpaths are excellent safe routes away from traffic for walking and cycling. As schoolchildren a gang of us would often cycle to Parbold along the towpath during summer, but mostly it would be walking along there from Martland Mill to Crooke or Gathurst, and back home by the same route or more often along the Orrell Colliery mineral line, which at one time ran down from Walthew House Lane to the River Douglas Navigation at Crooke, this unused mineral line also made an away from traffic walking and cycling short cut route.

That would have been great Rev. David. I still have a scar on my left knee from riding along the canal 60 years ago. It looks like a purple pit scar from the shingle after being stitched at Wigan Infirmary.