Floating classroom is all at sea after losing its mooring

Charity appeals to canalside businesses to allow Elsdale II space to recharge

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17:33, 22 APR 2014

An electrically-powered barge that provides educational and community trips on the Grand Union Canal desperately needs a new mooring with facilities to re-charge its batteries.

The Elsdale II floating classroom, which is operated by environmental charity Groundwork South, has been carrying school children up and down the canal in Hillingdon and surrounding boroughs for more than 10 years.

Manager Mike Moritz said: “For the last five years, we’ve been privileged to receive a free mooring with round-the-clock security and free electricity from quick-fit plumbing company John Guest in West Drayton.

But John Guest announced that we would be required to vacate the mooring, with only two months’ notice, due to their site (which was being leased from Network Rail) being demolished to make way for London’s Crossrail project.

“In the short term, the floating classroom is still able to charge her batteries at Packet Boat Marina and moor at The Water’s Edge pub, both in Cowley.

“However, these arrangements are costly for us and also, because we are only allowed to charge after dark, inconvenient to our operations.

“As such these measures need to be a short term solution in order that our costs don’t dramatically increase and damage our business plan.”

Elsdale II, which is supported by grants from City Bridge Trust and the General Mills Foundation, is 70feet long, 15ft wide and is the largest electric wide-beam barge operating on the UK’s inland waterways. She is fully equipped with facilities that allow people in wheelchairs to make use of her.

The boat carries more than 6,000 students a year on half-day trips along the canal so that they can learn about the ecology and historic background to the waterway.

Community groups and corporate trips mean the barge will normally carry about 10,000 people a year in total. It operates in Hillingdon, Hounslow and Ealing boroughs.

Mr Moritz explained that, ideally, the barge is looking for a new mooring that could offer:

* Exclusivity with the facility to be able to bring the boat to and from the mooring at any time, knowing the mooring would be open and that it would be possible to moor without other craft obstructing the site.

* Mooring and charging facilities – permission to install suitable mooring pins to enable secure mooring at the site and also to install a 60 amp, three-phase charging point.

* Access to the site by Groundwork staff 24 hours a day. They will occasionally need to make deliveries to the boat by vehicle, and would therefore need to be able to get a car or van to within around 100 metres of the boat,

Groundwork had hoped to conclude a deal for mooring with National Grid for the use of its site at the North Hyde Road electricity sub-station in Hayes but this proved impossible.

Mr Moritz is now appealing to other businesses in Hillingdon that have premises with canal frontage to step forward to help out so that the Elsdale can continue to provide educational trips for children and access to the canal for people who would not normally be able enjoy the waterway.