St Johns

Basingstoke Canal

Published on September 19, 2006 By Canaldrifter In Welcome

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Amongst other things, I am a water bailiff for parts of the Mytchett Pound and Deepcut Flight of

Locks on the Basingstoke Canal. I was thus quite surprised to see a report on uk.rec.waterways

that someone had noticed an empty pound, from a passing train window. I contacted the

Basingstoke Canal Authority who acknowledged that there were some low pounds 'around

Brookwood and St. Johns.'

The canal is short of water, and has been closed to navigation since May this year for that

reason. We knew of a pound between Locks 27 and 26 that had been drained by poachers

recently, but that has been replenished, with water, if not fish.

So, yesterday Mrs Drifter and I set off by car to see what was what. We couldn't find any empty

pounds on Deepcut, which can be viewed from the train, although some reaches were a bit low.

As Brookwood couldn't be seen from the train, we went straight to St. Johns, or Goldworth flight

of five. Indeed the pound twixt Locks 10 and 9 was dry, and was a sorry sight. Whether it had

also been drained by poachers, or by vandals we had no idea. We noted that the balance beams

had been painted recently to hide graffiti, but nothing had been done to repair a broken footbridge

slat, or to replenish the empty pound. in the

What was even sadder, was the amount of litter lying around. Where youths had been sitting on

benches, empty cans, plastic bottles, carrier bags and paper lay strewn about just where it had

been thrown down on the topwath.

I'm not suggesting that all young people are litter louts, but obviously, in yob culture it is the done

thing to make as much mess as possible. It's not only the yobs, either. In a nearby canalside

park we have an area reserved for barbecues. It is very popular with familes during the weekends.

I walk the dog there in the mornings. On Mondays the whole area is a mess of litter; disposable

plates, bags, abandoned food, ash and coal, drink cans all lie strewn across the area. Admittedly

some families bag up their rubbish, but then they leave it leaning against the tables. Of course

the foxes rip it all apart and scatter it looking for food. I really feel sorry for the man with the

tractor and trailer who has to clean up all this mess.

Isn't it time that penalties for littering were made much more severe.... maybe a long compulsory

time of community service for offenders?Shouldn't some effort be made to catch culprits? As a

child, if I dared to throw down a sweet rapper I'd get a belt. I'm not advocating violence now, but

there has to be some sort of deterrent otherwise future generations are going to be permanently

knee-deep in crap. The Basingstoke is known to be one of the most beautiful canals in the

country. I would love to see it kept that way.

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