Every so often a campaign photograph says more than a press release ever could, and this week’s update from the Great Ouse was one of those moments.
Politicians on the water, not just in the postbag
It was great to see the GOBA / Fund Britain’s Waterways campaign cruisers engaging with local MPs Ian Sollom and Richard Fuller, briefing them face to face on the critical funding issues affecting the River Great Ouse and other waterways. There’s something quietly powerful about getting decision-makers out from behind their desks and onto the water itself, where the value of a healthy, navigable river is impossible to miss and the cost of neglect is just as plain. Conversations like these, held on the towpath and the deck rather than in a committee room, are exactly how a campaign turns polite sympathy into genuine understanding.
You can see the original update on the Fund Britain’s Waterways feed over on X (@FBW_Campaign).
Why the funding fight matters
Fund Britain’s Waterways is a coalition of organisations speaking up for the hundreds of thousands of people who use and love Britain’s canals and rivers — boaters, walkers, anglers, cyclists, wildlife lovers and the towns and villages that grew up along the water. Behind the pretty scenery sits an ageing network of locks, bridges, banks and embankments that needs constant, properly funded upkeep. Without sustainable long-term government funding, the risk isn’t just the odd closure here and there; it’s the slow loss of a national asset that took generations to build and can’t easily be replaced. That’s why briefing MPs directly, as the Great Ouse campaigners did this week, matters so much.
If you’d like to add your voice, please sign the petition and help spread the word with #FundBritainsWaterways. Every signature is one more reason for those MPs to keep listening.
