BUCKING UP...

We join Waterway Recovery Group’s first canal restoration working party in six months - as WRG’s volunteers help the Buckingham Canal Society get the project back on track after lockdown

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It’s a sunny Saturday morning in September and on a patch of grass a few yards away from the Grand Union Canal at Cosgrove, Terry Cavender of the Buckingham Canal Society is giving an introductory safety briefing to a circle of 15 or so Waterway Recovery Group volunteers, prior to the start of a restoration work party on Bridge 1 of the old branch canal which used to lead to Buckingham.

But would you recognise them as WRG volunteers? Where are the trademark red hard-hats and the WRG high-vis vests that usually distinguish the roving volunteers of the Inland Waterways Association’s practical restoration arm?

The answer is that we’ve been asked to bring our own personal protection equipment, to cut down on the amount of sanitising needed. It’s a small example of the various changes which have been made to facilitate the WRG volunteers’ first foray into canal restoration work in almost exactly six months, following a shutdown of their activities as the lockdown kicked in. Terry goes into various other Covid-related safety precautions: keeping two metres apart (as we are doing now, standing in a circle to listen to him) whenever possible and taking added precautions if we ever need to reduce the distance to one metre; cleaning, handwashing and hygiene; spraying sanitiser everywhere (he’s bought a joblot of wild rhubarb scented variety, spending £300 of a £5000 post-Covid recovery funding grant that BCS secured on a couple of thousand litres of the stuff); rules on sharing transport; safe systems of work; welfare (basically make your own hot drinks in disposable cups or your own mug, help yourself to a triple-wrapped pack of biscuits, and sorry, no cake sharing!) and so on.