ONE thing is for sure, I can't help but feel sorry for those boaters on the Peak Forest Canal who want to cruise.
For will they be able to get out and if so, be able to get back? And what about the boaters attempting the Four Counties Ring? No chance.
This particular waterway must surely be closed for one reason or other more than it is open. And it's closed now!
And has been for the past three weeks—right in the middle of August—this time it is Lock 7 on the Marple Flight whose chamber wall has shifted—and no 'method of repair' in sight, with CaRT telling us:
'Our contractors have been to site to carry out the in-depth survey that will help determine what works are required. The findings within the survey are currently being analysed, we anticipate the results will be ready next week'. That's a new one on me but doesn't hold much hope.
It was in June that Canal & River Trust told it intended to close both the Macclesfield and Peak Forest canals 'for several weeks' due to lack of water. In fact it was closed and open then closed again time after time since the 3rd of April, our only being told this Saturday that it is open again.
This goes on most of the time, after dry weather and so I attempted to list just how many such stoppages. But it was too much for me!
But the failures of Wood End Lift Bridge on the Peak Forest, that fails, is 'repaired'. then fails again are legion—five times in the past two months.
At one time it was closed for several weeks whilst a 'method of repair' was being investigated. It was repaired, then of course failed again.
It last failed on the 27th July—and is still closed over four weeks later with nothing being done until September!
Congratulations to Canal & River Trust
He's lost it I hear you thinking—actually congratulating the trust!
But no, in its wisdom it has decreed that those pesky E-scooters that cause so much aggro on the towpaths be banned. And E-bikes too, many that are tuned-up to get a higher speed.
For which I do congratulate it.
There are many records of people being injured by these with news of a 28 years old knocked into the Regents Canal and injured.
Though it makes me wonder just how this will be regulated.
Also decreed is that cyclists must give way to pedestrians and cycle slowly. But of that, no chance.
Winter stoppages
The list of winter stoppages has been announced and contains details of 137 jobs in 70 pages.
Alas based on last year's stoppages they will not all be completed.
And so I must agree with our Keith when he relates—I wonder how many of these will actually get done this year?
As there is obviously a shortage of the hard stuff at the moment certainly not them all.
The millstone
Mentioning the 'hard stuff' brings me to CaRT's biggest problem as I see it—contractors.
Take 'blown' cills for instance. the trust most likely has to pay for contractors to discover a 'method of repair' and then when finally arriving at the job needing a fortnight to complete.
And that fortnight nearly always takes from Monday to Friday—twice. And at what cost? There is one at the moment on the Leicester Section in Leicester that will take the normal fortnight.
I should imaging over ten times that of replacing cills in the old British Waterways days, when it usually took just a couple of days. I realise there is more 'health and safety' nowadays, but that should not drag it to taking two weeks.
If only the trust could be allowed to get rid of the contractors and depend on its own team it would have a hell of a lot more money in its coffers.
Victor Swift— telling tales for 23 years