I THINK WE MUST all agree that this has been the worst season ever for boating.
It certainly was for us in over 30 years of boating. The closure of so many waterways supposedly due to the lack of rain was the problem, yet my records show we had a similar lack of rain twice in the past 30 years, yet there were certainly not the closures of now.
And looking at the history of the canals when they were used for what they were built for, shows the only anywhere near a long stoppage was the big freeze in the 60s that closed them from Boxing day to early March, as they could hardly move. By then, road and railway had taken over.
During the time of our boating the situation has become worse and worse, culminating with the change to Canal & River Trust and those stupid decisions of getting rid of lengthsmen and then lock keepers, followed by the selling-up of all the equipment needed to keep the canals open, ending in relying on the contractors from Keir, that sealed their fate for the worse.
I know I have told it many times, but stopping maintenance has proved time and time again to be the main fault. With virtually everything left leaking, until the dry weather comes along, but then the leaking locks and waterways cannot hold the water so it drains away.
And then the reservoirs that were built to supply the waterways had their water used by the water companies, as no new reservoirs had been constructed to supply a vastly increasing population, that further increased the problem.
Customer service facilities
Another of my all too regular subjects is the closing down of so many Customer Service Facilities.
But we know why they are being closed, as CaRT all too often tell it is because they do not meet the requirements of the government's Simpler Recycling legislation.
What I don't understand is why aren't we told what is being done about these requirements. Or is anything being done? And can we expect the facilities to all eventually be closed?
Or when closed why not those then suggested are not emptied more often, such as we found Willington, to take the extra rubbish.
John Coxon explained the problems admirably, especially in relation to continuous cruisers.
There's a point
An interesting point from Julia in her email we received, concerning the salmon returning to the Sheffield & South Yorkshire Navigation as told by the Don Catchment Rivers Trust, she asking:
If the salmon were 'wiped out' 200 years ago, how did they 'return to their original spawning area' now?
A point indeed!
Whatever next
So CaRT are hoping to get a few visitors to its Anderton Boat Lift Visitor Centre by offering them bird boxes to paint. Whatever next I wonder?
Surely the people there must know that the interest is the actual working of the boat lift itself, not such as painting bird boxes?
And the boat lift is not working and there doesn't seem to be much information as to when it will be, which means visitors will become less and less, and the visitor centre will most likely be following the way of the boat lift.
Strange
There is now a list published of the restrictions of the various waterways, but ner a mention of any of the major northern ones.
Such as the Leeds & Liverpool, Rochdale or Huddersfield Narrow. Yet all three still have restrictions I learn, so why not published?
It gives me the feeling that these are no longer important.
Why?
I just cannot understand why CaRT keep describing Wrenbury Lift Bridge 20 on the Llangollen Canal as a swing bridge, when the navigation guides all show it as a lift bridge? Here's the picture, yet again, showing exactly what type of bridge it is.
And nowadays there are so many mistakes with dates and places that it is obvious no one checks the notices it churns out. Which so confuse the boaters who rely on them.
With all its multitude of staff surely one could be given the job of checking, and perhaps given copies of a decent guide to make sure everything is accurate. But alas it is not helped by each separate section in charge publishing its own stoppage information, which is why—should you notice—that particular excuses are used by different areas.
Such as boaters blamed for that daft excuse of leaving gates open, as though top and bottom gates can be open together! Or that other daft excuse of boaters opening paddles on that Fradley lock night after night, when boaters were told by volunteers it was leaking, which was why it was down every morning! And so not a boater getting out of bed every night to open the paddles! Daft excuse indeed. Silly sods!
Sorry
Sorry indeed if you believe my effort this week includes too much about the machinations of Canal & River Trust. But surely, its ways and means really need the telling thereof.
Perhaps the hope of a change next time, eh?
Victor Swift—telling tales for 25 years...