Trip boat operators suffering

Published: Friday, 09 July 2010

IT IS not only normal boaters who are suffering from British Waterways' lack of maintenance, its commercial customers too are being hit.

Orph, owner of Oxley Marine near Wolverhampton on the Staffs & Worcs  Canal feels strongly about how his business is being affected by the lack of maintenance, and writes:

Two big issues

We run a 70ft trip boat from Oxley, and the economical climate has not been kind to us, however that is another issue. My two big issues at the moment are:

1. The winding holes on the Staffs & Worcs in this area and the southern section of the Shroppie are becoming unusable for a full length boat. The worst is the winding at Chillington which has boats moored in it (sat on the bottom).

Having got stuck twice in two weeks with both the fore and aft end of Stafford aground, We are being forced into not using the Shroppie for our shorter two hour trips. This will hit us in the pocket! The expense of a commercial licence plus the intensive and expensive scrutiny of the MCA with twice yearly safety examinations and bi-annual out of water surveys will force us off the cut soon if we can't do these trips.

All pushed in the canal

2 The grass strimmers have been out again. Hacking the towpath shrubbery hotly followed by a BW person with a blower pushing it all into the canal and onto moored boats! The outcome has been three boats coming in with over-heating problems caused by fouling of the prop with this debris. Again this hits boaters in the pocket. (It's bad enough in the autumn with leaves falling naturally into the cut without BW adding to the problem.)

As an aside, why do BW only cut the veg where cyclists use the towpath? North of Marsh Lane Bridge on the Staffs & Worcs my customers on the trip boat can't see any of the scenery as the waterside vegetation is so high!