Disappointed at being mis-quoted

I was somewhat disappointed to find John Dodwell felt the need to mis-quote me in order to make his point in his recent article published in narrowboatworld, writes Ralph Freeman.

John claims I wrote:

'Ralph Freeman's announcement (narrowboatworld 3rd October) refers to heavy rainfall in the Stone area around the same time, causing water levels to rise by seven inches overnight', and added 'now that's quite some rainfall!'

Different

Whereas what I actually wrote was:

'The water level in the Marina rose overnight Tuesday, detectable even before I got up on Wednesday by a list to port! The water continued to rise rapidly throughout Wednesday morning and the water became cloudy with sediment. Not a good sign! By now the water level was above the bottom of the pontoons, a rise of some seven inches'.

Not quite the same I think you will agree?

For the record, a quick surf around the Met Office Website revealed the rainfall, at it's nearest monitoring point to Stone, was of the order of 2.7 inches for the period in question. Also the site revealed a storm occurred in early September 2008 and produced a similar amount of rain, just four years ago. So the idea that the rainfall referred to in my article was somehow a 'freak' or 100 year event, is well wide of the mark.

Remote sensing

On the subject of remote level sensing and power operated sluices, according to Nicholson's Dutton Stop Lock is number 76 on the Trent & Mersey Canal. Perhaps John can find out how many of the 70 plus pounds on the said canal have remote controlled, power operated, sluices and level sensing?

I'm sure many boaters reading narrowboatworld would be interested in the investment made by British Waterways/Canal & River Trust on automation on the Trent & Mersey over the past five years? Have you any figures John?

Extra strain on banks

High water levels put extra strain on the banks, embankments and towpaths. BW/CaRT acknowledge this because at the first sign of a problem with a pound they lower the water levels! Prevention of high water levels in the canals is therefore extremely important.

I suspect many in the boating community are concerned that lengthsmen have been removed, but in many instances, there appears to be nothing to replace the vital services they provided.