Water must run uphill

NOT content with attempting to convince boaters that British Summer Time started last weekend (Where do they get them?), Canal & River Trust's Damian Kemp now tells us that water runs uphill, writes Allan Richards.

It would appear that gaff prone Damian, who has worked for British Waterways and now CaRT for four years, has some difficulty with the differences between an embankment and a cutting.

Ridgeway Cutting

In the article 'Dredging promise broken' it was stated 'CaRT blame breaches, asset failures and other incidents for the cancellation but hopes to undertake the work at a later date'.

It also states 'emergency repairs need to be carried out to prevent failure of a cutting on the arm at Ridgeway Trading Estate. Until these are carried out, at an estimated cost of £500,000, neighbouring properties are at risk'.

The explanation

However, Damian Kemps is convinced that the cutting has a leak. He says 'Let's imagine we do the dredging and don't fix the leak, we'd have a lovely dry ditch. So we'd have spent money dredging and and then have to potentially compensate nearby properties due to flooding and yet we'd still have to fix the leak....'

Yes Damian, but you are confusing a cutting with an embankment. With a cutting, properties are unlikely to be flooded by a leak as they are above the level of the canal.

....water does not run uphill.

Playing it safe

However, it is not all gaffs. Damian has learnt his lesson and is playing it very safe with his latest utterance, 'a leak is a leak'.

You can't argue with that!