Victor reckons the 'foreboding' is no surprise

MY LAST effort gave us all a relief from the shenanigans of Canal & River Trust—with ner a single mention.

Alas, it leaves me little alternative this week to remark on its antics with it telling that if more funding is not forthcoming its waterways could 'disappear' with its Regional Director Yorkshire & North East complaining that it is 'creaking at the seams'.

The £52.6m annual grant is obvious;y not enough so the trust has called on the new Labour government to increase its funding.  But I can't see much help there, especially if they see the list of 64—yes 64—directors, managers and heads. And as I have mentioned in the past—four lawyers and even an advocate!  Here's a few of the variety:

Head of Environment & Climate Action

Head of Place Making & Design

Head of Philanthropy

Head of Attraction Development

Head of Insight & Development

Head of Strategy & Programmes

Head of People

Then there is a Peoples Manager, People Director, People Charge Manager.

Surely too many.  And not forgetting the support teams.

It seems rather top heavy to me and easy to purge, and so save money.

What do they do?

We are all aware that most of the work involved in keeping the waterways operating is done by contractors, with CaRT having a sale of most of its equipment when it came into power, leaving little left for its own workers.

That begs the question—why 1,600 staff?  What on earth do they do that actually concerns the waterways? Perhaps many are involved with wildlife and the like that are not listed under the directors, manager and such.

Bottom heavy too!

Good contenders for closure

But back to the concern of having to close waterways by the Yorkshire fella.

I can well see see his worry as both the Rochdale and Huddersfield Narrow canals are good contenders, with closure after closure week after week

The Rochdale had five closure in August with the 'Narrow' hardly used, with restrictions of use of the Standedge Tunnel in addition to its closures.

The first photograph shows the Rochdale under restoration and the second one the Huddersfield under restoration.

Yet under British Waterways both were restored to use with the Rochdale costing £23.8m and the Huddersfield Narrow costing £30m.  If now closed again what a waste of money that will have been.

And should this happen and then become a linear park as CaRT are so fond of suggesting, will this be the end of them both?  It certainly is a worry.

How it should be done

We have all read of the time it takes nowadays for contractors to repairs sink holes into culverts, with there endless inspections and finding a 'method of repair' before they even start.

The one on the Macclesfield Canal that occurred on the 11th December 2023 was not even finished when it was reported on the 15th February, it hoping to be finished later that month, thus taking over two months to repair.

Yet the Highways Team managed to repair the sink hole in a culvert on The Wilts & Berks Canal in one week!

Another example showing where the trust's money is wasted.

Another quick one

Boater Trevor Mapstone asks why is it that CaRT actually did a repair to Weston Lock (pictured) just outside Bath on the Avon including the paddle (or trapdoor as the local publication called it) in one day.

When it takes so long on the rest of the network.  Contractors!

Tidal mooring still not repaired

It was way back on the 12th January of this year that part of the visitor moorings at Dunham on the tidal Trent was broken making it imposable to use.

Boating on a fast flowing tidal river can be dangerous especially under a Spring tide, and the need for moorings is essential, yet it's now September and these moorings have still not been repaired.

The excuse/reason being that a crane boat is required to lift the construction, and obviously is not available.  So much for CaRT's preaching of health and safety!

Why asking for money?

We often get what are called 'one-liners'—a comment comprising of just one sentence, that of course are not really suitable for publication. Some without a name making it even more difficult.

Any-road-up, we have just had a new record for these 'one-liners'—17 in all! 

And what are they? Telling that CaRT should not be asking for people to give money for the cyanide spill but that it should be met by the people who caused it.

And right they are. Why should others fork-out £20,000—that is what CaRT is asking for—to restore the wildlife that was killed by people allowing a leak into the waterway?

Plenty of stoppages

There were 37 stoppages in August, three more than July, surely showing things are not improving.

Victor Swift— telling tales for 24 years