Crumbling Canals

Judging by the April edition of TPT it would seem BW is using it’s communication and PR facilities to mount a “Charm Offensive” with waterways publications. The aim appears to be to convince waterways users that everything is fine on the network and the budget cuts have had no significant effect with regard to the safety or operation of the system.

I beg to differ. Whilst the emergency call-out operation of BW works as well as ever, routine and preventative maintenance appear to have become a thing of the past.

Despite claims from senior BW staff that the system is “with only a few isolated exceptions totally fit for purpose”, how can boaters fail to notice problems such as paddle mechanisms being very stiff to operate due to rusty bearings? The said bearings in the ground paddle mechanism shown had not been lubricated for a considerable period of time and contained only rusty water, not grease! A classic case of penny-wise; pound foolish?

Further along the Trent & Mersey canal, at Alrewas Weir, a boating incident over a year ago dislodged several flotation “doughnuts” such that the safety hawser is now below water level and therefore almost useless. Surely this is a major safety issue? However, we are told by BW that “no safety critical work is outstanding”!

Just around the corner, much of the mooring area below Alrewas lock has collapsed into the canal / Trent. The problem began in the spring of 2007 and has been allowed to get rapidly getting worse. Anyone using this lock is bound to be seriously inconvenienced by this situation. It makes life especially difficult for the crews of hire boats based at the nearby Barton Marina.

A similar situation exists below Penkridge lock. Here BW has decided to fence off the subsided area rather than carry out the necessary repairs.

So, in reality, everything is not fine on the cut. The canal system never was and never will be low maintenance. It is a 200+ year old “working museum” and needs TLC to keep it operating properly. I really cannot see that pretending everything is fine on the cut, when clearly it is not, will achieve anything. Might I suggest BW’s attempt to “spin” it’s way out of the current situation is to insult the intelligence of waterways users? Perhaps reallocating BW’s PR (spin?) budget to maintenance might go some way to improving the situation as well as removing the negative PR that problems, like those shown above, create.

If BW went “back to basics” with a mission statement (how I hate those words) of say, “Another 200 Years”, scrapped prestige projects and re-instated lengthsmen, then they wouldn’t need a PR budget at all. Everyone would be on their side! BW doesn’t seem realise that seeing a “blue shirt” fixing something is a PR statement. It says to me, as a license payer, “that is where my money is going”. Whereas some article in a magazine from a BW financed “spin merchant” says “that is where my money is being wasted”!

I’m sure many boaters, like myself, would be prepared to do low level maintenance tasks such as lubricating lock paddle mechanisms, checking the tightness of bolts and the like, on a voluntary basis to save money. As I travel around the system I would willingly report problems, complete with photographs, (if that would help), to an appropriate E-Mail contact within BW.

After all, as a liveaboard it is in my interest to see the cut is kept in as good a condition as possible as cost effectively as