Communications Update 20th May 2016 News Round up



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Communications Update

20th May 2016
News Round up

The Trust’s Great Nature Watch got under way this week with nationwide media coverage:

Campaigns manager Sarah Burns and ecologist Chantal Dave were interviewed live on BBC Breakfast TV (17/5/16)

National ecologist Mark Robinson gave a great interview to BBC Radio 5 Live’s breakfast programme (17/5/16). Mark also gave an amazing 20 interviews in a row to regional BBC and commercial radio stations across the country

A nice example of the fun broadcasters had with the story is this piece on Fun Kids Radio

John Sergeant’s Barging Round Britain (13/5/16) featured the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal: ‘one of the oldest and prettiest canals in Britain’

The Sun (15/5/16) looks ahead to half term and includes boating on the Oxford Canal amongst its ‘Top 10 Kids’ Half Term Fun’

Likewise, the Independent website (17/5/16) includes a canal boat holidaying amongst its ‘5 last-minute family escapes’

Volunteer leader Max Ward hosted BBC Radio Somerset and BBC Radio Bristol (15/5/16) on the Bridgwater & Taunton Canal for their programme ‘Clueless’

The BBC website, BBC Radio Gloucestershire and BBC regional TV (13/5/16) reported the removal of three cars from the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal

Volunteer leader Alice Kay gave a fantastic wide-ranging interview (engaging, knowledgeable and enthusiastic) to BBC Radio Lancashire (9/5/16) about the recruitment of welcome station volunteers, John Sergeant’s TV series and the delights of the canals in general

Volunteer lock keeper Paul Roache gave a great interview to BBC Radio WM (13/5/16) about lock keeping the wider role of volunteers on the canal



BBC Radio Lancashire (16/5/16) reported the launch of the Trust’s awards to mark the 200th anniversary of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal

BBC Look North reported live from Bingley Five Rise locks (17/5/16) to interview the lock keepers Richard Moor, Nick Stead and John Lobley who told viewers how proud they are to have beaten off national competition to be named Volunteer Lock Keepers of the Year.  They were also interviewed live on BBC Radio Leeds drive time programme (17/5/16)

ITV London (18/5/16) filmed at our eel pass on the River Lea.  We will be taking a freelancer for The Times and local news photographers there next Tuesday

And finally, for those visiting the continent, you may spot some nice canal coverage in the Eurostar magazine (May)

In social media:

·        Great Nature Watch has had a great start on social media since its launch on Tuesday. The top tweet reached 5,000 people and was retweeted by @Team4Nature300 who have over 63k followers

·        We shared BBC Breakfast's Great Nature Watch video (featuring Tim Muffett at Hanwell Lock Flight) with our Facebook audience and it has been viewed 1,347 times by our audience (7,485 in total) and reached over 5,000 people

·        The story about the three cars removed from Gloucester & Sharpness Canal was top for engagement on Twitter this week, people engaged with the tweet 245 times (double the average) and it reached 3,539 people

And coming up next week:

·        We’re promoting a public consultation on the exciting plans for the Roundhouse in Birmingham

·        We’ll be telling the media about a free family activity day along the canal in Aylesbury on 5 June

·        BBC Points West will interview the team working on a remotely operated bridge on the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal

·        We’ll be promoting an open meeting on the Kennet & Avon Canal, inviting people to drop in and give their ideas on how to improve the waterway

·        There is a Share the Space event on Wednesday on the Grand Union Canal at Rickmansworth

·        There’s due to be a feature in this weekend’s Sunday Express (Travel Section) about the journey along the Leeds & Liverpool Canal in its bicentenary year

·        On Monday we’ll issue a press release about the Dance on Water project – part of the Trust’s Arts on the Waterways Programme








The Great Nature Watch


Take a trip to your local canal, river, reservoir or lake and record what you see there. It’s a fun activity to do with the family and will help us to monitor and protect the wide variety of precious wildlife that the waterways are home to.

This year we're calling on everyone to ‘Stop, Look and Listen’ to what’s happening around them following our own survey results, which show surprising gaps in people’s nature knowledge.

We've been working with  the renowned Wildlife Sound Recording Society to create a series of nature noises and challenge people to identify them as part of our Wildlife Ear and Eye Q test. Surveying toddlers to OAPs, the results showed that 25% of parents and 30% of children could not identify the sound a duck makes. 

We also found that 23% of parents and nearly a third of children thought that ducks have yellow feathers, perhaps the result of children’s TV programmes such as Peppa Pig.

Findings also show that 76% of parents believe that they are less knowledgeable about nature than the previous generation with 68% of parents also believing that their children are less knowledgeable about nature than they were at their age.

When put to the test the gap in wildlife knowledge between parents and their children is actually surprisingly close, however the gap between grandparents and their adult children and grandchildren is much bigger.

Dr Mark Robinson, national ecologist for the Canal & River Trust, says: “It’s a shame to see that people’s knowledge of nature is declining, but this can easily be reversed.

For more information, take part in a wildlife quiz and to download the Great Nature Watch app click here




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