A river in Melksham is not just for boaters.
How many boats will the link canal ... the river through the town ... and the ongoing Wilts and Berks canal bring to Melksham? Not as many as you might think - I've seen it written somewhere that out of every 100 people visiting the river in such a scheme, only 4 will arrive by boat - and as there's an average crew of four on a boat, that means just one boat for every person.
So where do all the extra people come from? I'm in Cambridge tonight - a waterfront with just a couple of canoes on the water (we already have canoes on the water in Melksham, by the way) but lots of waterside activity.
People walking. People cycling home. People jogging. People fishing. People walking the dog, and people taking the children out. People dating on a bench. People eating at a waterside restaurant. People taking photos and people enjoying the scene.
Don't let people tell you that a navigable river is just for rich waterbabes - it isn't; it's for everyone. And don't tell people you need a lot of boat traffic to bring a lot of people and a lot more prosperity; you don't. Just a handful of boats - and little disturbance by them - will bring a renaissance to the town. I'm heartened by Cambridge; we too in Melksham can have a magnetic waterfront.
(written 2010-10-11, updated 2010-10-12)
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles
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