CaRT's apology goes missing

Published: Friday, 01 February 2019

THE mystery surrounding lock 20 on the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal is set to continue for some time, writes Jessica Williams.

It was on 17th January that narrowboatworld gave lock 20 as 'A prime example' of CaRT's failure to send out stoppage notices.

Placed the blame

This prompted the trust to issue a stoppage notice with an apology which firmly placed the blame on the West Midlands Region: 'The lock has been out of use for a while and because there is an easy identifiable alternative route nearby the stoppage wasn’t put on Waterscape by the local team. We apologies [CaRT's spelling!] for this oversight'.

However, it was pointed out that it was lock 20 that was closed not lock 8 (It's Lock 20 not Lock 8, CaRT!). One would have expected a second apology for this blooper and a stoppage notice to be raised retrospectively for lock 20. No such luck! CaRT's only response has been to remove its existing apology from the lock 8 stoppage notice.

Questions unanswered

Several questions have remained unanswered for months -

§ Why did CaRT close lock 20 to navigation some months ago?
§ Why has a stoppage notice not been issued?
§ When will the closure be lifted?
§ Why was lock 20's problem not dealt with as part of the North Stratford pre-Christmas winter works programme?

Informal enquires are dealt with on the basis of "We will get back to you".

However, the questions still remain answered.