British Waterways winter stoppage programme

British Waterways proposed winter stoppage programme consists of 212 stoppages which will take place between 7th November 2011 and 9th March 2012, with a two-week Christmas break between 21st December 2011 and 4th January 2012.

The first draft of the proposed programme is now live at www.waterscape.com/winterstoppages  and British Waterways is welcoming feedback via the website until Friday 3 June 2011. All comments will be taken into consideration and a revised programme will then be published in July, with the final programme following in early September.

Vince Moran, British Waterways’ operations director, says: “Following last year’s trial of publishing our proposed programme for public feedback, we found the process to be incredibly useful and the results proved successful. It’s really important that we work with waterway users to ensure that we get the winter stoppage programme right. I would therefore encourage people to contribute and to be as specific as possible when giving us their feedback as this will help the works planners to revise the programme.

“Last winter we held a series of 12 stoppage public open days across the country, which proved to be very popular and we will be looking to hold more of these over the 2011/12 stoppage season. The open days are a unique opportunity to get a close-up to our 200-year old working canals and see how British Waterways staff are looking after them, and more details will follow later in the year.”