"Where is the Grand Union Canal?"

LAST Tuesday (9th July), I was working alongside the canal in Digbeth, Birmingham and noticed, along with others, that the level had dropped by at least five inches in under three hours. writes Ken Griffiths.

I rang BT Directory Enquiries and was put through to CaRT offices. The lady who answered listened to my enquiry and put me through to someone else.

Concerns

Explaining my concerns and giving her my location, I was then asked: "Where is the Grand Union Canal?"

I described it as best I could giving the nearest bridge number and saying the stretch concerned ran parallel to Fazeley Street in Birmingham. The next question was: "Is it North or South?"

After being put on hold for some time, I was eventually told that someone would ring me back and confirmed my telephone number.

Needless to say, no one rang. But, throughout the day the level did recover.

More disabled access problems

The following day, we were working further along the canal on the towpath (filming). The gate for wheel chair access was to be used by us to get equipment down to the towpath. However, the key provided by CaRT did not undo the lock, which had been smashed in from both sides.

A call was made to CaRT, who responded quite quickly with a man in a van. He was unable to unlock the gate and called for help and very soon two more men turned up. It took the three of them and a wrecking bar to move the gate. So how someone in a wheelchair with their own Radar key would manage is any one's guess.

Knew nothing about call

Later on, a supervisor arrived, so I asked him about my calls the previous day and what happened to my callback. He replied that he knew nothing about it, yet his name was the name given to me the previous day.

I remain hopeful that the items continually written about CaRT's lack of communication etc, are only a 'teething problem' with the 'new' management, but I shall not hold my breath.