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Brian Roberts |
IWA Rep
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Brian Roberts has always lived and played beside water.
Whittle-le-Woods near the Leeds & Liverpool Canal was home for many years. A grainy box camera image confirms his earliest memories on water — the girlfriend of the moment is shown against the deck rail of a Windermere steamer- they were aged eight. Row-boats on Poole Park Lake were part of later family summer holidays, and visits to his grandparents always included walking the dog along the Grand Union in Norwood Green and Southall, both known to countless Number Ones.
In 1993, when he started using a narrowboat instead of B&B during his days working for Oxfordshire County Council Brian joined the Oxfordshire Branch of the Inland Waterways Association -- one of the earliest special interest pressure groups, which for over 50 years has been lobbying Governments to increase their commitment to the Conservation, Use, Maintenance, Restoration and Development of the Inland Waterways.
The boat was moved round that part of the system within commuting distance of Oxford so that he arrived to work from a different direction each week, a type of boating he later discovered was known as “week-ending”. He soon became Planning Liaison officer on the branch committee and was embroiled in the eight-year long, essentially paper-based, campaign to ‘save’ Tooleys Boatyard in Banbury from complete destruction by an out of scale ‘town centre / shopping arcade’ development. The shopping centre at Banbury now hosts an annual ‘Canal Day’ in early October.
Since 1994 he has been concerned with the Wilts & Berks Canal. First as part of East End liaison, assisting in meetings with the Vale of White Horse Council and subsequently was appointed by the Inland Waterways Association to be their representative on the Trust Council.
Since 1999 he has also been concerned with the campaign to reinstate the Oxford Canal Terminus within the re-planned West End Area close to the newly regenerated area around the re-opened Oxford Castle.
He believes the Wilts & Berks Canal and the east portion of the Cotswold restoration will, together with the Kennet and Avon canal and the River Thames, deliver two cruising rings (of one week and two weeks duration) to the huge population in the South of England that will more than match those available in the North.
As the years pass he has reduced his charitable activities -- recently retiring as central Southern Regional Chairman and full Trustee of the Inland Waterways Association --- but – his colleagues willing – he will continue to bring whatever skills he has to this project.
To get in contact with Brian use the form below. |
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Trust Contact Details 
