Canal meeting today

Regular readers will be aware of the disagreement that has emerged between the Canal and River Trust and local resident Danny George who runs George's Pork and Poultry from premises leased from the Trust at Lock 15 just to the north of Audlem.

The Trust has given Danny notice to quit for a variety of reasons, many since withdrawn, such as Health & Safety issues about shoppers crossing locks, something that would make the entire canal system unusable if this was unsafe!

Last week on Tuesday 12th February, we published an extensive article by Peter Underwood, a boater and supporter of Danny George's case, entitled 'The Battle of Audlem Locks'.

This described some of the Facebook activity that has been going on with the Trust getting involved in a public campaign over the issue – unwisely many would argue for a charitable Trust, which is what the successor organisation to British Waterways now is. While many of the Trust's comments have now disappeared, many readers of the original comments seem to have saved them.

The Facebook debates also reveal that a fighting fund has been set up to which supporters of Danny's case have already contributed over a thousand pounds.

We hear, however, that there is a possibility of sense returning to this argument with a meeting scheduled today between Danny and the Trust's regional chief, Wendy Capelle. Hopefully, a reasonable solution will arise and common ground can be found over both the wooden extension Danny has built to the very small rented brick hut and any other issues.

Judging by Facebook and contributions to the fighting fund, many boaters seem to be coming out in large numbers supporting a shop they enjoy using as they pass through Audlem. Hopefully today's meeting will satisfy all involved.

AudlemOnline must declare an interest as two members of the webteam do grow vegetables at Lock 15 – and have always been impressed by how much boaters appear to like a stretch of previously unused ground now being used productively.

This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.