WHILST stopping off at Cosgrove CaRT's facilities building for water last Friday on the Grand Union, I noticed a chap writing down the boat numbers of those boats moored between the facilities building and Solomon's Bridge, writes John Howard.
On his way back past me, my curiosity got the better of me and I asked him if CaRTs Enforcement Team had stopped patrolling this stretch of canal. He informed me that CaRT do in fact still patrol but he was taking numbers on behalf of his wife, who in turn passes them to Cosgrove Marina, who in turn pass them on to CaRT, as they (CaRT) apparently like to know which boats are moored there on a Friday. ??!!
Why
Assuming all of the above is true. One has to ask why?
The parting shot from this collector of boat numbers was to say:
"If I had my way I would fill in all the 'effing' canals and turn them into motorways!"
My initial reaction (apart from 'what a prat!') was that this was probably not the type of customer-facing individual that CaRT would ideally be looking for to represent them. My second thought was that if the canals actually were filled in, then his wife and the marina one assumes would all be out of work!
A blind eye
When I thought about it further it gave me a possible insight into why it might appear that somebody may be turning a 'blind eye' to some boats who seemingly constantly overstay in some parts of the network. If CaRT is empowering a particular company or individuals to record and submit boat sightings on their behalf, but possibly without CaRT's knowledge this task is being sub'd out to another individual (who then subs it out even further away from CaRT) then what confidence can CaRT have in the accuracy of the data recorded, and in fact how 'complete' the submitted list might be?
Untrained and local volunteers are more likely to drift away from the agreed CaRT policies and standards, and are also more likely to be 'mates' with some of those potentially offending boats. So it's also quite possible that their 'mates' boat number gets missed off the list?
Good relations?
This individual does nothing to foster any confidence and support for good relations between CaRT and the boating population.
Makes you wonder doesn't it?