'Wellbeing' Charity—who are they kidding?
DURING the course of Summer 2018 it became apparent that, far from looking to the 'wellbeing' of their customers , the Canal & River Trust was actively engaged in doing the exact opposite, writes Tony Dunkley.
Boaters from the canals, including those venturing onto the Thames tideway for the very first time, were exposed to unnecessary and serious risk by the Trust, who were routinely dispatching canal boats from Limehouse Basin without adequate guidance and advice to enable them to deal safely with the hazards they were about to face, or taking the trouble to inform the Port of London Authority's Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) of the presence of these highly vulnerable boats and crews on the UK's busiest stretch of commercially used tidal river.
Number of incidents
This practice led directly to a number of incidents and near misses, from which, by good fortune alone, every boat and everyone aboard escaped without injury or anything more serious than damaged paintwork and soiled underwear.
Not content with last year's efforts to compromise canal boater's safety in the South East, this sick joke of a Navigation Authority is presently sparing no efforts in arranging for canal boaters in the North East to be exposed to similar or perhaps even greater risk by closing down the one and only suitable and safe route for canal boats from the tidal Trent to the Trust's northeastern broad canals and waterways, via Keadby Lock and the Stainforth & Keadby Canal.
Stuck with sea-going commercial shipping
On Tuesday 19th March 2019 Wykewell End Lift Bridge on the Stainforth & Keadby Canal at Thorne suffered a serious mechanical failure which left the bridge inoperable and the canal closed to navigation until further notice. As a direct consequence of this closure, every boat that would normally have used Keadby Lock and the Stainforth & Keadby Canal to get from the Midlands, via the Trent, to the trust's North East waterways or vice versa, is left with no choice but to either cancel their trip, or to use the next nearest access point to the canal system at Goole, which, in either direction entails nine miles of both the Trent and the Ouse down to where they meet to form the Humber, and all of which are busy with sea-going commercial shipping, well known for their fearsome tides, and utterly unsuitable for inexperienced crews on boats designed and equipped solely for use on the sheltered and still waters of the canal system.
By way of adding to the risk to which this situation is already exposing pleasure boaters, the trust is presently operating Keadby Lock with only one working sluice (paddle) on the bottom set of gates, and were this one to fail too then the lock would be completely inoperable, and there is then the very real prospect of boats needing to get out of the Trent to safe haven in the canal being marooned out in the river at the mercy of the tides and the ships that regularly engage in turning manœuvres in the immediate vicinity of Keadby Lock.
It is high time for this now utterly discredited and flawed organization, to be consigned to history and replaced by a body capable of doing the job in which the CaRT has failed so miserably and completely.