I see that the (near) bankrupt government are scratching around for a few bits of family silver to sell off and have come up with £500M of assets belonging to British Waterways, the income from which maintains our canals for the enjoyment of the British public.

I know that there aren't many (if any) canals in the West Country, but I would hate for my local canal (Basingstoke Canal) to dry up and become a large ditch within five years after all the work that has gone in to restoring it over the last 20 years or so.

Once more this government has no concept of what the countryside is all about (oh and are they oblivious to Little Venice in the heart of North London?).

Arthur Trice wrote:
(oh and are they oblivious to Little Venice in the heart of North London?).
I don't know whether that was said tongue in cheek, Arthur, but if they are unaware of the Regent Canal, they would be among very good company. I was a bobby at Caledonian Road (and Kentish Town and King's Cross) in another very much earlier life and it was one of my favourite places to become unseen where I could sneak the odd durry and generally skive off without being found. Very peacefull and, in those days, very unspoilt. I suppose it is very different today. Although it was only at the back of Kings Cross Railway Station and accessed through the coal yards, I was so surprised to discover that most of my peers at the nick were unaware of its existence. Perhaps they were more dedicated to there job!!

The Midlands is a good place to find canals too, since a lot of materials used to be moved around in this way during the early days of the Industrial Revolution. I've seen the ones at Foxton, on the Leicester line of the Grand Union Canal;

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxton_locks

As for the selling off of the assets, if this is true it's a short-sighted measure. As fossil fuels (especially oil) become more expensive, which almost everyone who's studied the subject expects them to over the following years and decades, we're going to need transport options which are more fuel-efficient and barges fall into this category, as this American link shows;

www.scrappy.com/BargePage05.htm

Here's a good site for anyone who's interested in our inland waterways, particularly from a leisure point of view;

www.waterscape.com/