Rivers Orwell/Gipping

toyboy said:
The barrier is supposed to be flat on the river bed unless activated but the problem experienced somewhere else was having the barrier in the raised position when the flood was actually fluvial and the electricity needed to lower the barrier was not available because the electric sub station was flooded and so the actual flood was far worse than if the EA had never become involved..
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One swallow does not a summer make

toyboy said:
There is much case law now where the right to navigate on water is addressed and many Judges are now appearing to make the case that rights of way on the water is far superior to lad based rights of way as they are often much older. .
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Care to quote some examples? I know of no such case law and indeed I am not aware of any significant cases reaching the courts since the Derwent, Severn and Wye cases some good few years ago were all unsuccessful (amongst others). The British Canoe Union in particular have been trying to establish a general right of passage over rivers for decades without success. For many years now their focus has been on negotiating access agreements with landowners (who usually hold the riparian rights to the centre of the river)

toyboy said:
Without wishing to labour the issue I must point out that nobody owns the water in a river NORMALLY. The bed of a river can be owned as can fishing rights and the bank etc but rainwater belongs to nobody "normally" and especially in the case of the River Orwell (which I know) and the River Gipping which I am not so familar with. With land based RoW the land being walked upon belongs to someone usually and that person can claim to be protecting his property. That is not the case when on rainwater even if the river bed and fishing rights belong to an owner.
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I hate to say this but that reads like errant nonsense. I have a vague recollection that the British Canoe Union tried to advance that argument, or one much like it, decades ago and it got nowhere

(And even if it were true, what use would it be? You cannot have a navigation where the boats have to stay in the middle of the river!)

Convince me I'm wrong by quoting some authoritative sources (and not, please, opinions but actual references to law or case law)
 
Just to wade in with an uninformed point (because it's about third hand information) said Commode of the Tuesday Night Club was on the IWA Council for a few years and frequently telling me of issues. We ran the narrowboat out of the Thames & up the Blackwater to do the Chelmer & Blackwater canal up to Chelmsford, all done and OK. But there was a problem at the time, the owners/commissioners of the canal were about to give up, and if they had of done (feeling this was about 2001-2) the ownership of the navigation would have reverted back to the owners of the land/riverbed, then all possibility of future navigation would have been lost. I believe (again 3rd hand) the local branch of the IWA stepped in to take over ownership to avoid this happening. Probably got most of this wrong, but the gist should be correct and I would assume there's some relevance to the Gipping Navigation.

When we had my motor cruiser at Ipswich 2003 we had a look at the Gipping Navigation in the Ipswich area. Chris Colburn had taken his narrowboat Progress into the Orwell on a trip from north Norfolk to the Thames, and tried to get up the Gipping as far as he could. He had got stuck on the weirs within a few hundred yards from the marina, causing a lot of media interest at the time. I've still got the video somewhere.
 
With regard to the Canal from the Blackwater at Heybridge, I believe that it is and always has been privately owned and is not controlled by the IWA.

I can't remember the details, but there are some very interesting information boards by the sea lock at Heybridge concerning the history of the navigation. You can enjoy a pint whilst reading them. :D
 
As a counter view, I find all this very interesting. I'm aware of some of the work being done on the Gipping and as I live only 100 yards away from the river and own a canoe I'd be very interested in hearing that a right of navigation existed, or may exist in the future. I vaguely remember a TV programme a few years ago where the presenter (either Griff R-J or Paul Heiney - cant remember which) canoed down from Stowmarket to Ipswich.

I can't see that a movable flood barrier is likely to be a major impediment; surely if the intention was to restrict access it would be a lot cheaper and easier to construct a permanent dam with sluices?
 
Leighb said:
With regard to the Canal from the Blackwater at Heybridge, I believe that it is and always has been privately owned and is not controlled by the IWA.

I can't remember the details, but there are some very interesting information boards by the sea lock at Heybridge concerning the history of the navigation. You can enjoy a pint whilst reading them. :D
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I seem to recall the company went bust?
 
Bru said:
What is this "blazer" of which you speak? Does it go with jeans and trainers?
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Its the long down the nose look from posters who have been here for about 100 years and usually only talk to each other in case someone intelligent happens along :-)
 
I did find it a bit odd some of the regulars got sniffy about this discussion, after all it is about navigation rights of an East Coast river. I can understand some not finding it interesting, but surely the answer is not to read the thread, not try and stop others talking about something of interest to them.
 
toyboy said:
Its the long down the nose look from posters who have been here for about 100 years and usually only talk to each other in case someone intelligent happens along :-)
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It was doing just fine, right up to that post, that's the point where most just think there's no point bothering to reply, up to then there may have been some leg pulling, even some gently saying it's boring, but no insults right up to that post. That's when people on here give up, that's when this turns into a lounge thread, and you still haven't answered the question of your identity, most on here known each other, you're sounding more like a troll so lose the trust and interest of others. I'll join them now if you don't mind, I'm out
 
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