More mismanagement

ON THE Gloucester & Sharpness Canal the Bridge Keepers would traditionally ensure the grass was cut regularly either side of the bridges at this time of the year. This meant that the visitor moorings were kept in a neat and tidy condition and were pleasant places to moor up, writes Amy Dickerson.

Alas this year there has been a change. The lawn mowers and strimmers have gone. The Bridge Keepers are not allowed to cut the grass.

Towpath for cyclists

What has happened is that British Waterways has once again shown its ability to mismanage a system that worked perfectly well and to the benefit of all of us. The work has now been contracted out, so that now the visitor moorings do not get a cut at all. But don't despair too much, the towpath gets cut to ensure that the cyclists can get about on the canal.

I have travelled the length of the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal today from Sharpness to Gloucester, and all the visitor moorings have effectively disappeared. My advice to any one expecting to find somewhere to moor is to carry at the minimum some shears or better a strimmer. To get your mooring chains through the piling you have first got to wade through a waist high jungle, and then you begin the search for the piling.