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Canal call for London
Page 9
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BRITISH WATERWAYS has hit back at claims that it is doing too little to promote freight on London's canals. And the organisation, which maintains 100 miles of canals and rivers and 110 acres of docks in the capital, says campaigners demanding that freight is shifted from roads onto London canals are "living in cloud-cuckoo land".
Del Brenner, secretary of campaign group Regents Network, claims that about 100 LGV trips a week could be saved in and around the Islington City Road basin by switching freight from road to water. He says this would cut congestion and pollution in the area, both of which are currently being exacerbated by the building of housing.
Brenner says: "We can take a bulk of traff ic off the road at the same time as not taking the bread out of the mouth of the haulage industry. With any building beside waterways, water should be used to take demolition material away and bring in aggregate materials. Water freight comes in for heavy, non-time-critical material."
But British Waterways says encouraging freight onto water is not as simple as "waving a magic wand". A spokesman explains: "No serious freight has been carried on London's canals for the best part of half a century, and anyone who images that some magic wand can be waved is living in cloud-cuckoo land, "We're looking into the options for the City Road basin area at the moment, he adds. "There are considerable challenges to make it stack up commercially: the cost comparison between barge and road haulage; investment needed in getting a 19thcentury canal system working; and the number of locks that need to be dealt with."