Lazy Buggers Charter?
ALL IS becoming clear. Richard Parry has spotted, or has been informed about, what I will call the LBC, The 'Lazy Buggers Charter', that has lain at the centre of BW/CaRT's maintenance procedures for many years, writes Ralph Freeman.
Another title could easily have been 'Let it Fail'. Let me explain....
Jobs below £50K were the responsibility of the local region. Anything higher and the responsibility moved to Vince Moran's central based engineering group. What is wrong with that you may ask; that seems eminently sensible? Well yes, but only if the local managers cared about the canals on their patch, but otherwise it is a massive loophole. I suggest one manager appears to have been exploiting this loophole for many years. Evidence exists all over the Trent & Mersey Canal in the Midlands if you care to look closely.
Fletcher years
After the 'Fletcher Years' during which BW's maintenance staff, yes they had them in those days—got stuck in and really made big improvements to the state of the waterways, (I think it's fair to say they were probably at their best around 2005/6 and have been on the way down ever since); it was almost unheard of to observe water leaking through the walls of a lock and appearing at the tail. Now it is quite a common occurrence, especially on the Trent & Mersey Canal. The picture shows Sandon Lock.
Reported leaks
When I started photographing and reporting such leaks, the standard reply was "It's only a small leak and is not important." I wondered at the time how long it would take for a small leak to become a large leak with the consequential structural damage?
Well that has been answered of late by the unprecedented level of structural failures involving brickwork on locks and wing walls. Bear in mind small repairs would have been done locally, but grouting the entire lock for instance would be the responsibility of the central unit due to the cost of employing contractors.
The reason?
So could the existence of the LBC (or 'Let it Fail') be the reason for the total lack of sensible preventative maintenance? You see if the repair was tackled early on then the region, Central Shires for instance, would be responsible for organising the work. But why bother? With the LBC in place all the said manager has to do is ignore the problem until it becomes a major one, say a section of wall collapses, then it ceases to be his problem. The repair will now be well over the £50k price break and the repair will have to be organised and executed by the central engineering team. Presumably, the cost no longer comes from the region budget either Nice one!
Hence, my label of 'Lazy Buggers Charter'. Indeed, if you ignored essential low level maintenance long enough, the problem really did go away!
Not any more?
How Vince could have missed that one beats me? Still, now all engineering appears to come under his remit (with Richard Parry looking over his shoulder?), there should be no chance of playing 'pass the problem' or 'let it fail', eh Vince?
Nice one Richard, that's more like it!