Fearns Wharf

I have spent today at Fearns Wharf. The scene is beautiful but bleak. Not just because of the weather but because this is a valuable asset operating at well below its potential. 

How do we use lessons learnt elsewhere to ensure that the waterways support the social and economic recovery within our cities?

The wealth of experience within the Partnership Board is evident when they look at the region from the Tees to South Yorkshire, examining the significant issues and barriers, but also exploring the opportunities and big ideas for increasing use and engagement. We have to balance the tensions created between managing the current assets whilst looking to the future. 

On a personal level, this left me thinking:  

How does Canal Connections demonstrate that the importance of our work through the waterways is not just about the well being of the waterways but that it is also about creating vitality for the benefit of people, the majority of whom face personal challenges in their everyday lives.

How do we manage the current assets whilst looking to the future?

How do we manage aspiration? 

Conference Update: Waterways for Growth Partnership Meeting Aalst (March 2012)

I was still exhausted from the conference, having just snatched a few hours sleep to start a journey by car, plane and train across Europe. The next few days could have been seen as a holiday but it was always an intense and full few days. The setting and the company was wonderful and the amount of information that was shared and given was tremendous. The photographs I take when I am out and about usually show the pleasurable side of the work but the most importance aspect is the common aim of how we use the waterways for sustainable growth. Why is it surprising to find that lessons learnt in Norway can be replicated in the UK? The sharing of knowledge and experience is immense.

When I joined this group of experts I felt completely out of my depth. Their work was about economic and physical regeneration. Where did people come into it? But now we have workshops on “the social economy” integrating that 3^rd element of “social regeneration” – people are important.

Meeting up in the centre of Aalst for the Waterways For Growth Partnership Meeting

Working Late

Lest We Forget - An extremely moving experience of visiting a prison used during the war for the interrogation of resistance fighters