Archived Topic
Topic ID 2071
06/10/2006 by sloopjohnb
The river Lea (or Lee)
You may have read Raymond's piece in the Mercury today and in accordance with our agreement I said I'd only comment further once it was published so here goes and apologies for length.
Quite a few months ago the Community Services team dredged the river by my office. It was printed in all the media and picked up by the Inland Waterways Association who luckily had their marketing vessel due to moor up in Hertford the next week, They kindly offered trips and I invited a cross section of community/policians for trips to Hertford Lock and back.
This was a revelation. Everybody realised what a resource and jewel we have on our doorstep. The two trips turned out to be a huge fact finding exercise; one aspect of which was the decision of the then Hertford Borough Council not to join in with the Lea Valley Park. As such we missed out on the ability to attract visitors because all the maps ended at Ware.
It was generally decided that action was needed to open up the river to schools and educational societies/ nature lovers/ non boat people to see living history in the buildings and the fields and islands around the area, for visitors to enjoy cream tea trips to Ware and back and for boat people to navigate up to Hertford. Most importantly to put Hertford on the map.
I had already applied to the EEDA Quality of Place Fund in December last year to provide a grant to clean the river at Maidenhead Yard and allow boats to moor up where they could disembark and tour the town from a central point. This application was not successful in favour of some towns who asked for funds for hanging baskets.
So that's the background. Don't carry on knocking Raymond because he does a lot of community work, little of which comes to light; one project of which is to help raise Hertford's profile with the various organisations we have to reach to make the above dream a reality.
So, please vote in the Mercury poll because there is a lot of money out there that can be tapped into for the benefit of the town; but it would help immeasurably if we can get back in with Lea Valley.
0 replies
Archived Replies
Reply ID 27591
06/10/2006 by Mr P
quote:
Originally posted by sloopjohnb
...the decision of the then Hertford Borough Council not to join in with the Lea Valley Park. As such we missed out on the ability to attract visitors because all the maps ended at Ware.
What part of COUNTY TOWN does the borough council not understand? They obviously don't understand finance, tourism, marketing, profitability and the concept of "thriving" either. [:(]
Reply ID 27594
06/10/2006 by Leo Densian
quote:
Originally posted by Mr P
quote:
Originally posted by sloopjohnb
...the decision of the then Hertford Borough Council not to join in with the Lea Valley Park. As such we missed out on the ability to attract visitors because all the maps ended at Ware.
What part of COUNTY TOWN does the borough council not understand? They obviously don't understand finance, tourism, marketing, profitability and the concept of "thriving" either. [:(]
Quite incredible really [V]
Reply ID 27596
06/10/2006 by Ray_by_the_Beane
Well back then they probably didn't want a lot of "townies" and "oiks" coming to fair Hertford [:D]
There was also only a couple of restaurants in Hertford in the early 70s, so it wouldn't have been able to cater very well.
Hopefully, the present council is more enlightened now.
Reply ID 27784
09/10/2006 by Andrew
Who would actually be responsible for including the area above Ware in the LVP. Local government has changed so much since its establishment that I’m not sure what the mechanism would be. The EHDC area already includes a chunk of the LVP and I imagine that it is outside the remit of the Town Council. Is it a case of lobbying by all interested organisations, is there a initial financial cost to being included in order to benefit from the funding the park gets? It would certainly make sense for the whole Navigation and the Meads to be part of the Park.
Reply ID 27826
10/10/2006 by ian.ball
Great idea sloop. Wouldn't a river taxi between Hertford and Ware be a great idea too?
Reply ID 27827
10/10/2006 by Scouter
quote:
Originally posted by ian.ball
Great idea sloop. Wouldn't a river taxi between Hertford and Ware be a great idea too?
That's not a bad idea y'know. I wonder where you'd site the pickup and drop points since there's the lock to get through in Ware which would slow a journey somewhat.
It's also interesting if the boats were ever able to get through the Castle grounds because the grounds are locked at night.
Reply ID 27832
10/10/2006 by Bengeobabe
Any news Sloop?
Reply ID 27851
10/10/2006 by ian.ball
Hmm, maybe not sure a bright idea - according to Raymond's article "The journey currently takes around 75 minutes but British Waterways plans measures to keep the locks open, which could cut the travel time to 45 minutes."! Maybe they could do a speacial "cooked breakfast" service in the mornings and "afternoon tea" for the evenings [:D]
Reply ID 27852
10/10/2006 by Scouter
quote:
Originally posted by ian.ball
Hmm, maybe not sure a bright idea - according to Raymond's article "The journey currently takes around 75 minutes but British Waterways plans measures to keep the locks open, which could cut the travel time to 45 minutes."! Maybe they could do a speacial "cooked breakfast" service in the mornings and "afternoon tea" for the evenings [:D]
Signal Crayfish cocktail a speciality!
Reply ID 27900
11/10/2006 by sloopjohnb
quote:
Maybe they could do a speacial "cooked breakfast" service in the mornings and "afternoon tea" for the evenings
Strangely enough this option came up at breakfast this moring, including the taxi service. And afterwards we had a quick discussion about all those Mother and baby clubs, cafes for young mothers etc etc in Hertford for whom the idea of a river trip in the afternoons would be a really pleasant event. I could run breakfast meetings nad have a captive audience and if anyone disagreed they'd walk the plank into a Sargasso Sea of inedible crayfish.
Bengeobabe - nothing to report until Raymond back from having his teeth fixed in Budapest. He is brokereing a meeting with British Waterways for Partnership, Councillors, Officers etc.
13 replies