Victor: Sawley Marina 'blip'—£60 parking fine for moorers!

Published: Sunday, 07 April 2019

I CAN tell you that there are some very unhappy moorers at Sawley Marina at the moment.

For opening their posts they discovered notification of £60 fines for a single days parking of their vehicles at the marina, notwithstanding they had previously given their registration numbers to the office, as requested, to prevent exactly this.

But alas for Sawley, our Jan Green was one of them, bemoaning 'more aggro from Sawley'. (The poor lass had already had problems with the boat's power supply that now requires a telephone call every time it is disconnected!)

It was a short while ago that we praised the marina on its new jetty lighting and its new parking arrangements to cut down on illegal parking and make moorers parking more secure, it requiring all moorers to give their vehicle registration numbers to the office to make sure they were exempt from parking fees, actually filling in a form to make sure there were no mistakes.

But mistakes there obviously were, but it seems on the part of the system and those that operate it,  with I learn many moorers receiving fines through the post on vehicles that were registered, The good news however is that the fines can be ignored, the company admitting its mistake.

Waiting in anticipation

We are now waiting, perhaps not in anticipation, but in dread, at this company's next endeavor to install automatic gates to the marina, worked by number plate recognition.

We can only hope they have better success with this than with their parking system, but somehow I am somewhat concerned that we will be attempting to leave the marina late one evening, to discover another problem, the gates will not open!

We can but wait. But let's hope it will not be too long—at the gates!

BirmBlackThe wrong ones

I was impressed at the list of waterways CaRT tells it will dredge during its financial year, and can only hope that it will come to pass.

However, by far the two worst canalsthe Huddersfield Narrow and the Grand Union Main Line around Catherine De Barnes are not on the list.

The heavily silted very short pounds of the Huddersfield Narrow make it very hard going indeed, and the Grand Union from Catherine De Barnes down to Knowle Hill Locks is like plowing through treacle as the picture shows.

Open—then shut again

I'm referring to Wykewell Lift Bridge on the Stainforth & Keadby Canal that has been broken, but is open this week-end, but alas not for long, as the work has not been completed.

It will be closed again tomorrow, Monday, our Keith tells us, when further investigation works will take place. No information when the work will be completed, but the rather worrying information that when it does reopen it will be at 'agreed times'...

Not for us

I expect there are many of you like myself, who get exasperated by the ever increasing number of adverts on internet publications, for it seems they are becoming swamped in the urge to get revenue.

In case you may not be aware, let me explain. The more advertising that the internet giant can get in a publication the more its possible revenue and the corresponding increase in income for the publication itself, and to hell with the readers who have to suffer them.

The latest thing is persuading publications carrying its advertising to switch to its new system, promising more revenue, which then allows it to place adverts anywhere it wants, as large as it want and even as videos—you have all seen them swamping the text of many publications.

We too have been offered this system but our Thomas has strictly declined, believing the couple of small adverts is enough, their income just about covering his cost of publishing narrowboatworld.

Victor Swift