Victory over marina stop planks

THE complaint by Ralph Freeman, backed by narrowboatworld has secured a victory in the matter of the missing marina stop planks.

Ralph pointed out the danger of covering the stop plank grooves at the entrance to King's Orchard Marina, its water level being well raised above ground level as Ralph's picture from its East side well shows, and all its banks are similarly raised.

Could drain 15 miles pound

This means that these fairly recently man-made banks could easily leak, so without being able to insert stop planks, their groves being covered over, any leakage, as Ralph pointed out, could drain the 15 miles pound.

This stretches from Fradley Junction to the foot of both the Glascote and Curdworth flights of locks. That's a distance of 12 miles plus three miles.

Complaining to Canal & River Trust he received a prompt reply from Jon Horsfall Head of Customer Services Support, in which he stated:

Will ensure legal obligations are met

"As you quite rightly state, stop plank grooves play an important part in ensuring an effective connection and seal between the marina and waterway. As such and to ensure any legal obligations are met we will approach the Marina operator and ask them to make any necessary amendments required to ensure the stop plank grooves are available and fit for use."

So now all we have to do is wait for ABC Leisure to comply, so that the pound can be secured should any problem occur with leakage at the marina. Ralph's picture shows the stop plank groove clearly covered up so it cannot be used. The opposite one is the same.