A CaRT Trustee replies

MIGHT I comment on some recent narrowboatworld reports? asks Canal & River Trustee John Dodwell.

Sorry not to have done so before—one reason was that I was taking my boat to Stourbridge for the 50th anniversary commemoration of the 1962 'Battle of Stourbridge'. Lots of boats and even more people on the towpath there.

And then attending a presentation to the Welsh Assembly—where the display material showed boats, you'll be pleased to hear. I'm just back from the Royal Yachting Association/British Marine Federation Parliamentary reception, celebrating the Olympic sailing successes—somehow they managed to get a narrowboat on their display material too.

Respect has to be earned

I quite agree with (Steve Jenkin narrowboatworld 8th October) that respect is not a given, it has to be earned. I know it will take time for the new Trust to earn that respect. I see change being evolutionary, not revolutionary.

But I hope that users will come to appreciate that changes are happening. One example is the setting up of the Navigation Advisory Group—look at the navigation advisory group page on the Trust's website for the membership and the minutes of its first meeting last September. I'd have hoped that David Carden (narrowboatworld 15th October) would be pleased that, with the new Trust, the senior management recognises the benefits of asking boaters what they think.

Boats are key to the waterways, and the Trust knows the towpath public likes to see them. Another example of change is the waterway partnerships—whose minutes are also on the website. Yet another (but small) example is that I write these thoughts. The new Trust favours transparency. We'd rather people didn't use the Freedom of Information (FoI) procedure, but instead asked the relevant waterway manager etc—but we respect people have a right to use the FoI procedure. Just the same as (Pam Pickett—narrowboatworld 13th October) we accept—as long as it's not libellous—that people won't always agree with us.

Learn how the water control system works

I'm sorry that Ralph Freeman feels I misquoted him (narrowboatworld 10th October) but we seem to be agreed that he said the water rose in Aston Marina by seven inches. I asked Trust staff about his question on how much has been invested in water control etc on the whole length of the Trent & Mersey in the last five years and the answer is around £315,000, covering 23 different installations for water level, lock counter and flow monitoring. (Bear in mind that this type of work has been going on for many years and that some was done before the last five years).

This gives coverage of approximately 6.6 km per SCADA site. This can be compared with the Leeds & Liverpool Canal (7.3km per SCADA site) or the Kennet & Avon Canal (3.5km per SCADA site). These figures are an average and so it obviously doesn't mean SCADA devices are every 6.6km etc (4 miles in old money).

The general question of how water is monitored and controlled is not well known—I certainly learnt a lot after I became a Trustee. I didn't know it was called SCADA—which stands for Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition. Across the entire network, over £8 million has been spent on SCADA since 2002. I'd urge anyone who wants to get to grips with this subject to get in touch with a local Trust office and arrange an appointment to see how it works.

Now I don't want too much time taken away from normal work so maybe a few people can get together in a group... An alternative would be to go to one of the society etc meetings I read about in the waterways press as being addressed by Adam Comerford, the Trusts' Hydrology Manager (whose is based at Hatton).

Pam Pickett (narrowboatworld 20th October) asks me if I'd bet a neglected flood paddle she photographed against a £1.5m breach. If Pam can let me know where that paddle is, then I'll investigate.

Dredging and spending for boats

James Henry (narrowboatworld 7th October) had his doubts about the dredging which I listed. Well, see the photo of some of the £250k dredging last month at Hanwell I mentioned—taken below Osterley Lock.

See also the photo (below) of dredging at Fradley last month. This autumn £300,000 is targeted on spot dredging the Tame Valley Canal (Good!—I caught a large blade-full near Ocker Hill in September 2011.

If you want to see the dredging, then the dates are 19th November to 21th December. For those in the Lincoln area, you can pop along to Brayford Pool; Three weeks dredging starts there on 5th November.  And I can give you other examples.

Now, we all know this isn't enough, and the Trust plans to spend more on dredging. I mentioned in my last post the development of a new 10 year dredging strategy (something which is possible now we are out of a ‘Government cuts' regime). This and the fact that a significant majority of the staff and their work and of the Trust's expenditure (getting on for £100m when you add it all up) is for the benefit of boaters—e.g. reservoir repairs, embankment maintenance, culvert relining, about 200 lock gates replaced every year, vegetation management, water supply protection and much more—show that the Trust really does care about boats. I'd be pleased if you spread this around.