Letter: Weir Could Have Been Repaired Much Earlier If NT Had Accepted Its Responsibility

Published on: 25 Oct, 2026
Updated on: 25 Oct, 2026

Repair work underway to rebuild the weir.

From S Callanan

In response to comment from John Rigg on Tumbling Bay Weir Restoration Project To Be Completed Within Weeks

Recollections may differ, as someone once said, but John Rigg’s “while” has been going on for seven years.

The delay could have been a lot shorter had NT just accepted responsibility for the weir and bridge and commissioned a replacement in 2020.

But, as Mr Rigg knows well since he was the lead councillor when Ms Lewis’s report was placed before council on February 22 2023. By then GBC had had enough of being blamed for the failure to reinstate the weir and bridge. NT had come to GBC for funding soon after the collapse and the council stumped half of the £800,000 cost to restore the navigations water level.

No doubt the final cost will be “material” but NT is a very wealthy organisation after all and, as Jim Allen has already suggested, the cost would have been less some years back than now. I’m sure NT always has to manage “many competing demands”
but that’s the nature of their business.

For the avoidance of doubt I’m a long-standing NT member but I’ve found the way they’ve handled the Tumbling Bay affair far from good. If anyone fancies a walk down to Millmead lock by the Yvonne Arnaud they’ll see a sign proclaiming NT’s ownership of the River Wey and Godalming Navigation and its responsibility to “care for” it.

So what has all the fuss been about?