As a little more background information, here is a timeline of the campaign:

1 Oct 2006

- Save Our Waterways (SOW) began with a post on the popular internet newsgroup, uk.rec.waterways, referring to the swingeing cuts that had been made to the budgets of BW and EA by their government sponsor, the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). The newsgroup were so incensed that they decided to create their own protest group.

10 Oct 2006

- Communicating by internet, volunteers quickly formed a steering group, agreed on the slogan, launched a web site, created a logo and wrote a comprehensive Campaign Plan. Prior to the formation of SOW, IWA, RBOA, AWCC and had announced major protests in Birmingham and London but because of winter stoppages, many boats couldn't reach these protests so SOW's plan was to complement the central events by catalysing supporting events at waterways locations around the country.

12 Oct 2006

- Barely a week after being formed, during a series of interviews about the cuts on the BBC Breakfast Show, SOW member, Will Chapman, launched the SOW national campaign.
That afternoon, at BW's Annual Meeting, copies of SOW's campaign plan were distributed amongst over 100 waterway user group representatives.

20 Oct 2006

- Representatives of the major user groups met in London and agreed on common working strategy to stage parallel blockades across the country over a weekend.

22 Oct 2006

- SOW joined the alliance of major waterways user groups that issued a joint press release under the title United Campaign Against Waterway Funding Cuts. Representing over 200,000 boaters, anglers, cyclists, canoeists, rowers, horse riders, runners, walkers and environmentalists across the country, the alliance declared it determination to bring the serious threat to the future of the waterways network to the widest possible audience across the UK.

Nov 2006

- A concerted press campaign to riparian communities took place as the number of planned protest events passes 20. Supporters take the campaign to heart by writing to Ministers through their MPs

16 Nov 2006

- Tow Path Talk featured the SOW campaign and distributed 20,000 petition forms.

25 Nov 2006

- Over 1,000 boats took part in canal blockades and river rallies in 27 locations around the country gaining wide national TV, radio and newspaper coverage.

16 Jan 2007

- IWA's Parliamentary Flotilla took the message to Government's doorstep with dozens of boats converging on the Houses of Parliament.

3 Mar 2007

- Twenty two community protest events take place around the country as Ministers consider the crucial CSR which sets Government spending for the next 3 years.

14 May2007

- The SOW petition (38,101 signatures) is presented to Waterway's Minister, Barry Gardiner by SOW's Will Chapman in the company of Charlotte Atkins MP (Labour, Staffordshire Moorlands), Tony Baldry MP (Conservative, Banbury), Chris Huhne MP (Liberal, Eastleigh) and guest John Fletcher, National Chairman, IWA. Several thousand more signatures were presented to Parliament by individual MPs.

31 July 2007

- EFRA Select Committee publishes the results of its BW inquiry. One conclusion states there is a strong case for other Government departments - such as the Department for Culture,Media and Sport, the Department for Transport and the Department for Communities and Local Government - should make a direct contribution to BW's funding, to reflect the contribution BW makes to the agendas of those departments.

1 Dec 2007

- SOW Strategy Meeting defines campaign issues which include the belief that other Government departments should contribute to the costs of running the waterways.

11 Dec 2007

- New Waterways Minister, Jonathan Shaw, calls meeting with over 30 user group representatives and announces flat cash settlement for BW and formation of the Interdepartmental Working Group which will investigate ways that other departments can share responsibility for running costs of waterways.

10 Feb 2008

- SOW Strategy Meeting includes recommendation to consider forming a membership organisation.

10 Apr 2008

- The new membership-based SOW is formed at inaugural meeting..