CaRT puts boat and crew in danger

WE WERE put in jeopardy by an absentee manager at Lock 14 on the Marple Flight (Peak Forest Canal) writes Hilary Rhodes.

I sent an email to Canal & River Trust outlining the events which transpired below. I also have provided the reply that was an apology but did not address the situation and in fact reiterated the implementation of the orders that caused the problems in the first place.

The matter still has not been resolved as the manager who replied is now on leave.

As far as I am concerned, the whole incident need not have happened and the said manager had no idea of conditions around this particular lock.

Email to CaRT

To whom it may concern,

Marple Lock 14 on the Peak Forest Canal, Friday the 14th of August around 11:15 in the pouring rain.

An obviously absent CaRT manager put three of us and Willow in danger today. Thanks to this misguided manager's risk assessments the workers on duty instructed the skipper to get off the boat, cut his engine and then for our team to bow haul Willow into the lock. It seems that there is more concern with abstract legalities than with the reality of the situation in hand!

We had told the workers that Graeme had a very serious operation and should not have been climbing on the roof or on ladders, that is precisely why I had to engage a team of competent helpers from the Wooden Canal Boat Society.

As a consequence, we lost the rope, as the workers as our team tried to pull it vertically under the bridge and predictably it lifted over the T stud by the bridge, it being almost vertical and so Willow floated away in the pound without any crew on board. A worrying sight to see.

Fortunately Willow floated back with its fender between the sluice and the lock top gate, skipper Graeme could then get on board. Tom also got on board and managed to negotiate his way along the gunwale, past the covered cratch and onto the small area of the gas locker to pole the boat back to deeper waters while Graeme engaged the engine to ease out of the shallows.

Then CaRT workers then allowed Graeme and Tom into the lock under power and Tom came up the ladder. They told Graeme to get on the roof and hand up the rope, as well as to climb up the ladder, then Graeme climbed on the roof even after Tom told them that they should not have let Graeme on the roof.

The CaRT workers then thought better of it and said that Graeme could come down off the roof and not to try to hand up the rope and get back on the counter and we were relieved that Graeme did not injure himself as he had to clamber back from the roof, and stop handling the rope!

We are all furious with that ill-informed CaRT manager who never spoke to us nor showed his face.

We realised the three workers who stood there helpless and confused by the continuously changing instructions by said manager were caught between a rock and a hard place. If skipper Graeme had been allowed to stay on the boat, driving into the lock under power as he had done straight up the flight, none of this would ever have happened!

This picture shows Graeme attempting to steer the boat off the bank with Tom on the bow, poling it off the shallow mud.

Not happy

Dr Hilary Rhodes

The manager's reply

Dear Dr Rhodes,

I'm sorry to hear about your experiences at Marple and the impact that it had on the crew of Willow, as you will be aware we had a damaged tail gate which closed the flight of locks at Marple, having been inspected it was deemed too great of a risk to have the boats manned through the lock at 14. we are aware of the impact that closed navigations have on our customers and we looked at ways in which we could open the flight of locks back up to boat traffic and allow a number of boats through each day. The only way of doing this safely was by having the boats taken through the damaged lock unmanned under the guidance of our experience staff members, who we instructed on the required operations.

It does appear that in your case the correct guidance wasn't followed to which I can only apologies and try to assure you that we will be working with the local teams to ensure that they have the correct equipment and knowledge to deal with similar situations in the future.

Once again please accept my apologies and I hope on you next visit through Marple you'll find your experience a much improved one.

Kind regards,
Stephen Ballard CMgr MCMI
Customer Operations Manager

To which was replied

Dear Stephen,

The problem I described was because it was instructed that the boat be unmanned, and that is why the event happened in the first place. As I said, bow-hauling the 58ft boat through Lock 14 was well nigh impossible, and that was the cause of whole problem. In your post you say that the the procedure that caused the problem should have implemented, and no alternative method considered. If you deem it possible to be able to bow-haul the boat into that lock going up, then your team should have done it and been wholly responsible for our boat. It is not usual to expect the skipper to relinquish control of the boat without a pilot on board or controlling it.

Unless you had a small pilot craft in the lower pound to help guide and push the boat into the lock, especially in such inclement weather it could not be done. The inaccessible steeply rising bramble covered high bank and wide bridge of this deep lock made it impossible to control the ropes properly. I cannot see the thrust of your argument as it does not address the problem and you are reiterating the same procedure which caused the event in the first place! What were the teams present supposed to have done to ensure our boat entered the lock safely? As far as I was concerned, they did all they could under the circumstances and without you being present to supervise them.

The skipper of the boat will be contacting you later,

Hoping to get a more logical explanation of the procedure you suggested and the 'correct guidance' that you proposed should have happened at this lock.

Dr. Hilary Rhodes

Then the all too often reply

Thanks for your email,

Unfortunately Stephen is on annual leave until 6th September, and on his return he will be in touch.

Kind Regards
Liam Cooper
Canal & River Trust, Manchester & Pennine Waterway