IT WAS most astute of Dave Collins raising the question of the consequences of that spurious claim of over £1billion saved for the NHS.
Dave telling 'the claim to be saving the NHS a billion pounds could put the NHS own funding in jeopardy should Whitehall politicians start to think hang on— let's divert the money'.
The claim of course made by CaRT that the 'wellbeing' of being besides its waters saves the NHS that much cash!
Whoever conjured-up that most ridiculous statement—obviously didn't think of possible consequences, with luckily the outcome being that those with more sense realised just what it was—sheer rubbish. But a risky claim to make.
Kegworth Deep claims another victim
Last week another narrowboat was caught on the cill of Kegworth Deep Lock on the Soar and sank.
CaRT had however installed a notice warning of cill hang-ups in the lock, but strangely had placed the notice some yards below the lock. Where of course it is no use whatsoever as there is no chance of being caught on the cill when going into the lock and then up!
Our picture shows the width of the cill that can easily catch boats, especially newcomers, who don't have the nous to quickly close all paddles to stop the boat going further down and sinking.
All it needs, as I have so often told, is a notice—and sensibly (if possible) at the top of the lock—simply telling boaters to keep the boat forward on the top gates when going down otherwise they could be caught on the cill and sunk. But no, such a notice shows it is dangerous—mustn't do that don't you know? So they keep sinking
Instead of which, the name of Kegworth Deep Lock was changed to Kegworth Lock! Some good that did!
Will it be any different?
The Leeds Sanitary Station has been closed owing to constant misuse of the facility resulting in blockages which have required numerous call-outs and repairs in recent years.
So a temporary Elsan disposal unit is to be installed as soon as possible that will be reviewed at the end of August.
But why a temporary one? Surely If the permanent one gets blocked why do they think a temporary one will be any different?
Ahh! But CaRT does not have the resources—all gone!
Fallen trees
Amongst the many stoppage notices received so far this month comes those of fallen trees blocking the waterways—around 40 of them so far!
But why are so many trees falling down? Is it because they are just left to grow too big in poorly compacted soil and now being in full leaf they are too heavy for the ground to hold them?
Remarking on this our Keith asks—so where is the vegetation management? Are the trees also been left for the insects like all the other vegetation on the canals? I never moor under, or within the falling arc of trees now. I used to avoid them only when it was windy, but I avoid them as much as possible now as they are falling down even when it's calm!
Not a good idea
Our esteemed editor has received no few comments recently about the waterway sites that demand that you sign for cookies and so allow them access to your PC, tablet or phone.
The publishers obviously don't realise there is a growing swell against allowing such access, so are not getting the permission they want, so those sites must loose the hell of a lot of hits.
Our Thomas just doesn't see the point of wanting peoples' private information, so demands nothing, resulting in narrowboatworld being open to all, with no personal information ever gathered. Even emails are never divulged, something else that many pass on for a fee...
Victor Swift—telling tales for 23 years