The big spend

I must admit I was not one of your greatest fans, feeling that you are not too kind to the various authorities, writes Edward Grayling.

But I must now admit that I am beginning to change my mind, after getting so many stoppage notices about leaks whilst at the same time reading that Canal & River Trust are spending thousands of pounds on engaging more and more people that have nothing to do with the running of the waterways whatsoever.

Why does the Trust need them?

Why does the Trust need these heritage advisers and ecologists?  Surely it knows what heritage it has already, it has been there long enough. And why so many ecologists? Is there one for each area now?  And what are they supposed to do? But what really got to me was employing five customer relations managers, and I understand there will eventually be 11 of them.

As they are managers, this means they must have staff, all adding up the cost.  But what on earth will they spend their time doing? I am one of their customers as of course are all boaters, but what can they do for us?  The only thing we are likely to complain about is the shocking state of the canals, and what can they do about it? Nothing, in fact by taking money away from the much needed maintenance to pay their wages and bonuses, etc, they are making it worse.

Things would get better

I thought when the new chief executive took over with all the fanfare and the promises, things would get better, especially as he was putting himself out to meet us boaters, but it has come to no avail, for after a season's boating I can tell it is obviously getting a lot worse.

What is so worrying is when will this spending on office staff all stop? I don't think it will, for there is an agenda here, and it certainly isn't for our benefit.