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WHEN IS A BUILDING SITE NOT A BUILDING SITE….?

29/8/2018

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It is fair to say that Burnley Canal Festival over the bank holiday weekend was not all it might have been – not because of lack of effort by the organisers but because it was lacking one vital ingredient – boats. As Alec Wood reports, just two boats managed to attend and low water levels meant they had to moor away from the festival site.

With drought closing the Leeds and Liverpool canal either side of Burnley the festival had to be content with a handful of canoeists on the water, but it could have been different with a little cooperation from Canal & River Trust.

Canal campaigner Colin Ogden, attended last year’s festival and was immediately invited back with his restored historic Lake District taxi – Whimbrel.

Back in June he says, he was told by C&RT’s Project Officer Emma Fielding, at the Trust’s Rosegrove office, that he couldn’t use the slipway at Finsley Gate Wharf due to 'building work'.

Within days Colin was appearing in the local Burnley Express newspaper appealing for a truck large enough to hoist Whimbrel into the Leeds Liverpool Canal for the festival.

That appeal was unsuccessful but before the Festival Colin turned up in his native Burnley, only to find that far from being a building site, Finsley Gate Wharf was as empty and unused as it has been for many years.

A week before the festival The Floater asked Canal & River Trust why it was apparently unwilling to make an effort to assist in enabling the launch. The only response was silence. It is difficult to understand why the Trust was not willing to assist the Festival by enabling Colin to put at least one boat on the canal.

When, during the Festival Colin asked publicly on social media why he had been told the wharf was going to be a building site when it clearly wasn’t, there was no official response.

However, an observer reported to Colin that, at the C&RT stall at the Festival: “Emma Fielding was saying that she did not lie and that they should ignore you as you will soon go away”. This despite the evidence in plain view that there there was no building work on the site and that C&RT is holding an open day there in a few days time to promote a development it has planned for the site.

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CUT-OFF CANAL CELEBRATES 200 YEARS

25/8/2018

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EVEN THOUGH THE BIT THAT FINALLY OPENED 200 YEARS AGO IS NOW CLOSED

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Everyone is preparing to celebrate what is being described as the 200th anniversary of the Lancaster Canal next year and now there is a coffee table book out to mark the event – even though the book itself makes clear that the canal was opened in instalments and 2019 marks the bicentenary of the opening of what is now the Northern Reaches. Peter Underwood has been reading it.

Author Gordon Biddle, now 90 years old, is probably best known to boaters with a taste for canal history as the co-author with Charles Hadfield of The Canals of North West England nearly 50 years ago. Around the same period he wrote a couple of books about the Leeds and Liverpool and Lancashire waterways.

Now he has returned from decades of writing about railway history to take a look at the Lanky and his painstaking research combines with the use of lots of historic pictures to paint a detailed picture of how this always-fractured waterway came into being.

From the first proposals the route fell into three sections, one south of the River Ribble at Preston to link with the Leeds and Liverpool, one lock free between Preston and Tewitfield, where the current navigable canal ends, and one between Tewitfield and Kendal, requiring lots of locks and at least one major tunnel.

It was nearly 30 years after the Duke of Bridgewater opened his canal, linking his mines to Manchester that the young engineer John Rennie produced a scheme, in Biddle’s words: “for a canal wide enough to take Mersey flats from Westhoughton ...”the 75 miles to Kendal.

By 1792 the first completed section from Preston to Tewitfield was officially declared open. By 1798 the canal south of Preston was open from Wigan, almost to Chorley, and extended to Johnson’s Hillocks the following year.

The problem was then to link the two southern sections across the valley of the River Ribble and there were various proposals, including an inclined plane a lock flights up and down to the river, linked by an aqueduct.

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DIRECTORS’ PAY JUST KEEPS RISING

23/8/2018

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When Canal & River Trust decided to tear down the structure established by Richard Parry and the trustees, just five years after those changes were made, we were told that 78 senior posts would be scrapped and replaced by 60 posts and that just 27 of the new jobs would be senior, earning more than £60,000 a year. Allan Richards has been looking at the impact on the Trust’s £65m a year salary bill.

Back in June, The Floater noted that following the departure of two directors, Sophie Castell and Ian Rogers, C&RT was to undertake a major reorganisation which would see ten waterway regions reduced to six, decentralisation of many functions and senior management changes.

C&RT said that all 78 senior management posts would be scrapped with 60 new posts created. Of these 60 new posts, only 27 would be 'senior' (i.e. salary greater than £60,000). The Floater's article named 15 staff that were being shed as a result of the reorganisation.

The Floater said 'It remains to be see what the effect of these 15 leavers, together with previous leavers and the downgrading of jobs will have on C&RT’s £65m per year salary bill. Inevitably, short term savings will be offset by severance costs and recruitment of Regional Directors.'

Now we have C&RT's annual report to tell us about staff, remuneration and the reorganisation and what little the 2017/18 annual report has to say about it is hidden on page 28 -

'We continued our progress to become a more effective and efficient organisation in 2017/18, committed to working more economically, whether in the energy we use, the processes we operate, or the way we structure our organisation. As part of this commitment, we began the reorganisation of our Executive and Senior Management teams towards the end of the year, to increase our focus on local engagement and delivery, and to streamline and simplify the organisation, concluding our formal consultation in March, with significant reductions in Senior Management numbers.'

Rather surprisingly for a charity trying 'to streamline and simplify the organisation', the average number of persons employed during 2017/18 (1,698) rose slightly from the previous year (1,689). Employment costs rose by five per cent, from £65.1m to to £68.4m driven by a general 2.7% pay increase and £2.2m redundancy and termination costs.

The £2.2m figure seems very high bearing in mind that many of the leavers will go this financial year, not the previous financial year. However, reading the 'small print', it seems that redundancy/termination payments are accounted for when staff are informed that they are no longer required rather than when they actually leave.

Boaters have already picked up on the fact that car cash allowances have jumped from £2.4m to £2.8m. However, this appears to be due to C&RT phasing out its company car scheme in favour of cash allowances. Because company car scheme costs have fallen, the net result is that C&RT has managed to reduce its total employee car costs in 2017/18 by £100,000. That aside, it is still a significant figure for a supposedly 'green' charity and represents over four per cent of its total employment costs.

C&RT provides, in its annual report, a list of staff paid over £60,000 during the year. This list includes, in £10,000 bands, senior staff and directors. The number of staff paid over £60,000 during 2017/18 was 84, an increase of 5 over the previous year. C&RT say that the table banding includes redundancy payments but excludes termination payments made to 21 employees during the year. One is left wondering what the figures would look like if these 'termination payments' were included.

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C&RT RESPONDS AFTER LICENCE DATA BREACH

22/8/2018

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Canal & River Trust has suffered a substantial data leak, with boaters renewing their licences being sent details of up to 67 other boaters along with their own.

The leak seems to have affected several boaters with many taking to social media to explain and demand that the breach is dealt with under the new data protection legislation.

This afternoon C&RT issued a statement: “This morning (22 August 2018) we discovered a data breach in relation to licensing renewals affecting around 950 customers. We are urgently investigating the cause of this breach, which was due to a technical issue at our sub-contractor and not a breach of the Trust’s security system, and have stopped any further licence renewal emails until this is resolved. No bank details were released during the breach.

“We are contacting those customers that have been affected but any customer with concerns can contact the Trust customer service team on 0303 040 4040.”

The Trust also says it is ‘considering what further steps are necessary to take to meet our obligations under data protection legislation’.

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C&RT ADMITS WATER PROBLEM ON LANKY – AND ITS NOT WEED

19/8/2018

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The Lancaster Canal’s summer water supply has been an issue for boaters for many years, with the Ribble Link closed a few years ago because of low levels and the Glasson flight of locks currently shut in order to preserve water. However, simple drought isn’t the problem, as Peter Underwood reports.

At least one angry boater, moored in a Lancaster Canal Marina until recently, has given up in disgust and put his boat up for sale after repeated problems with low water levels and what he sees as a complete failure by C&RT boss Richard Parry to answer his complaints.

He has told Mr Parry: “How can a canal that is hard to navigate even at normal levels, be described as “navigation available throughout” when it is 20cm lower? Ask the helmsmen whose props and hulls are now damaged, who have ran aground and have been left stranded..
“Navigation has unarguably been rendered difficult for narrow boats and in my case, impossible.”

And he is not alone – other boaters visiting the Lancaster canal have even speculated that C&RT is secretly selling some of the water flowing out of Killington Reservoir rather than allowing it to reach the navigable section of the canal.

One old hand who has been intimately involved with the Lancaster Canal for many decades told me: “I just checked the water going under M6 culvert at Millness. It is three notches below the normal mark of 500. Water is coming from Kilington as normal at 20,000,000 litres per day – so that means it is being diverted or there is a massive leak between there and the canal.

“This causes a very slow current and the reason for the unprecedented massive amount of weed. Millness winding hole, normally free, is full of it.”

Although C&RT regularly blames weed growth on the Northern Reaches for slowing down water flows from Killington and low levels on the navigable Lancaster Canal it seems the water is lost before it even reaches the abandoned sections and it is the low flows that cause the weed growth – making the situation even worse.

Now, even Canal & River Trust admits it has a problem and doesn’t really know the answer, after many years of simply blaming weed growth.

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C&RT TELLS POLLUTION REVIEW BOATERS MUST BE SPECIAL CASE

17/8/2018

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The Canal & River Trust has urged Government to consider the needs of boaters and put financial support into the development of new, cleaner technology for the waterway sector in its response to the Government’s draft Clean Air Strategy.

The charity says it is supportive of the Government’s proposed measures to improve air quality and believes the waterways have a role to play in combatting pollution and providing clean air spaces, as well as helping reduce transport pollution by moving journeys off road.

However in recognising that the inland waterways make a very small but sometimes locally significant contribution to air pollution – namely through boat dependence on solid fuel burning stoves and diesel engines – the Trust is arguing for a coherent Government-supported approach, including investment in alternative technologies, to help address these issues and incentivise change.

The Trust wants to work with Government and local authorities on a sector-wide plan to develop solutions for reducing the impact from power and heating on boats while encouraging the uptake of reduced-emissions technology. This would need to take into account the current difficulties boat owners face in making changes to engines and heating methods, particularly when the boat is someone’s home.

Peter Birch, national environment policy advisor at the Canal & River Trust said: “Our waterways offer a respite for many people, especially when they run through urban areas that lack other green and blue spaces. We believe they have a vital role to play in improving wellbeing and can contribute to the reduction of air pollution. We’re committed to working with others to create opportunities for improvement by diverting journeys off road and changing public behaviour.

“Boats on our canals and rivers only make a small contribution to emissions nationally but there can be localised problems. We are working in partnership with local authorities and boaters to address these specific areas but would welcome additional investment in innovation and implementation for alternative technologies to help address these issues. Many boaters are already very environmentally conscious but are hampered by a lack of ‘green’ alternatives to diesel engines and wood-burning stoves.

“While we agree that vessels cannot remain exempt and must play their part in the battle to improve air quality, it is essential that the needs of boaters are accounted for when drafting any new legislation.”

The Government’s Clean Air Strategy can be read here: https://consult.defra.gov.uk/environmental-quality/clean-air-strategy-consultation/

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C&RT ISSUES THREATS TO AVOID ANSWERING QUESTIONS

17/8/2018

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Asked to explain discrepancies within its own figures on canal closures, Canal and River Trust’s head of legal services claimed answering the questions, from The Floater’s Allan Richards, would cause: “ harassment of, or distress to, the public authorities staff'. He added 'We do reserve the right to bring this behaviour to the attention of the relevant authorities for the purposes of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997”

Tom Deards, Head of Legal & Governance Services for Canal & River Trust -

It was two months ago that The Floater brought to the attention of the public the high number of unscheduled stoppages on C&RT's waterways. A snapshot taken on 13 June found no less than 13 'Emergency Navigation Closures' in force with a surprising number closed until further notice (CLOSED - until further notice). Daily monitoring of unscheduled stoppages over the two months since that article has shown the situation unimproved, with daily recordings always between a low of 11 and a high of 16. Allan Richards has taken look and wonders if C&RT's performance measures regarding closures are deliberately misleading.

At the time of writing , the situation is slightly worse due to what C&RT's hydrologists call 'navigational drought'. The figure on 13 August is slightly up on two months ago with 15 emergency navigation closures showing on C&RT's stoppages database. Whilst the C&RT publicity machine claims that 95% of its system remains open, the sad fact is that that many can't get to the parts of the system that they want to access, companies are losing business and peoples holidays have been ruined.

Let's start with one of C&RT's two closure measures. C&RT are required, as part of its Grant Agreement with Defra, to provide 'publication data' on or before 1 July each year. Schedule 5 of the Grant Agreement provides that, relating to footpaths [i.e. towpaths], C&RT must publish 'the number and duration of unplanned closures'. 'Publication data' for C&RT's 2017/18 financial year is contained in pages 48 and 49 of its annual report.

The publication data defines unplanned towpath closures as those 'caused by asset or infrastructure failure'. It gives the 2017/18 number of closures as 31 (2016/17: 24) and number of closure days as 452 (2016/17: 294). That's a steep rise in both the number of closures (29%) and the number of closure days (54%).

It may come as a surprise to some but there is no requirement under the Grant Agreement to publish the same information relating to navigational closures. C&RT takes advantage of this and does not publish figures for the number of navigation closures. It does, however, publish figures relating to navigation closure days. It's 2017/18 annual report gives the figure as 490 days against a target of of 400 with the previous year given as 549. A casual reader might be forgiven for thinking that, whilst C&RT had missed its 2018/19 target by a country mile, at least it managed a decrease against the previous year. Sad to say, however, these figures come straight from C&RT's department of dodgy statistics.

Annual Report 2016/17

Annual Report 2017-18

Consider this. As stated above, the number of navigational closures monitored over an eight week period has never fallen below 11. If this were extrapolated over a year then it would equate to over 4,000 days of closure. Even if we took out the five months of winter works with all its planed closures we would still be left with a figure of over well over 2,000 navigation closure days. This is four or even five times higher than the figure given in the annual report.

So has the number of navigation closure days suddenly shot up? Well C&RT's annual report claims it has significantly reduced unplanned closures since its formation -

'Notwithstanding our rising core expenditure and our improving application of the principles of long term asset management as our asset strategy evolves, the considerable age of our infrastructure, much over two centuries old, means that we do suffer significant asset failures that require immediate intervention. Lock 15 on the Peak Forest Canal’s Marple flight had to be closed in September 2017 after a lock wall was found to have moved such that the lock had become un-usable. This was a significant factor in us missing our target on unplanned closures in the year, (with 490 days lost against the target of 400, though this remains a significant improvement since the Trust was created).'

No mention, of course, that the Marple flight opened but closed again a few days later due to a similar problem at another lock on the flight.

However, we digress! Perhaps a clue lies in C&RT mentioning Lock 15 being closed for six or seven months of last financial year. That's about 200 days. Looking at current closures, it can be determined that Stainton Aqueduct was closed for 365 days in 2017/18. Three Mills Lock was closed on 16 October 2017 and is still closed. That means it was closed for 167 days during 2017/18. Middlewood locks on the Manchester, Bury & Bolton Canal has been closed since 30 July 2017 - that's another 245 days

A bit of adding up: 200+365+167+245=977. As can be seen, we are already double the number of navigation closure days that C&RT is declaring just on four closures.

Fairly obviously, C&RT is dramatically under reporting navigational closures. Reading its last two annual reports shows how it is doing this. It's 2016/17 annual report gives 'unplanned navigation closures' as 549. Its latest annual report spills the beans by declaring that the same figure (549) is actually the 'number of days of unplanned navigation closures within our control (individual instances over 48hrs)'.

So what C&RT has previously told us is 'unplanned closures' does not include short term closures of less than 48 hours. Trees falling and blocking the cut often result in closures of less than 48 hours but would not be included. The overnight closures we are now to experiencing due to a need to conserve water would not be included.

Closures of less than 48 hours, like those caused by fallen trees are not included

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NBTA CHALLENGES EA PRICE HIKE POLICY

15/8/2018

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The first boater organisation – and so far the only one – to challenge the Environment Agency’s plans to hike boat registration fees by between 10 per cent and 5.7 per cent per year for three years is the National Bargee Travellers Association (NBTA), as Alec Wood reports

The Environment Agency (EA) is consulting on proposals for increases massively above inflation in 2019 to 2020 and 2020 to 2021 and NBTA’s chair, Pamela Smith is urging members to respond by post, email or online before it closes at the end of August.

The EA has already increased registration fees (the equivalent of Canal & River Trust licences) for 2018-2019 on the River Thames by 5.7%; on the Anglian Waterways by 7.5% on the Upper Medway by 10%. The proposed increases mean that for three years running from 2018 to 2020, boaters will see registration fees rise by 5.7% each year on the Thames; 7.5% each year on the Anglian Waterways; and 10% on the Upper Medway.

The NBTA says it opposes all boat registration and licence fee increases except those genuinely in line with inflation, claiming that, if these increases are implemented they will ‘result in more boat dwellers struggling to pay the registration fee, more boats becoming unregistered and more people losing their homes’.

The NBTA says it will publish its full response to the consultation but points out to members that liveaboards are not even mentioned in the consultation. “It seems the EA has not considered the impact of the steep increases on people whose boats are their homes,” says Pamela Smith.

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C&RT'S LONG LIST OF CLOSURES AND RESTRICTIONS

13/8/2018

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The sheer scale of the closures and restrictions, both drought-related and the physical failures of the network’s structures has been brought home in Canal & River Trust’s usually chirpy and lightweight Boater’s update, as Peter Underwood observes.

Boater’s Update is usually unrelenting in its cheerfulness but – as it records - June was the third driest month since records began in 1910 – and the hot dry weather has continued.

What is more the weather forecasters can’t guarantee enough rain in the weeks to come. The Trust is now taking ‘further precautionary steps now to manage the possible effects of continued dry weather.’

As Boater’s update records - from August 10, C&RT will be: “locking gates overnight at certain targeted locks on the Regent’s, Grand Union and Hertford Union canals to minimise wastage through paddles being left open.

“Outside of London, from 13 August, similar measures will be taken on the Grand Union and Oxford canals. Locking up the gates at the end of the day will protect reservoir levels and enable backpumps to recirculate water ready for the following days boating.

David Baldacchino, head of operational support at the Trust is quoted: “It’s unclear how much longer the exceptionally hot and dry weather will continue so it’s sensible that we all take some simple steps to make best use of our water over the remainder of the summer.

“It’s quite possible that we may not see significant rainfall over the coming weeks and so we’re appealing to boaters to use water wisely and help us to protect the levels within our reservoirs.
“By adopting just a few simple common-sense steps - which many will already be doing - boaters can play a key role in helping us to manage the effects of the dry weather if, as looks likely, it continues through August.”

The Caldon Canal - partly closed to improve water flow to an over-used Trent & Mersey Canal

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NOW DROUGHT HITS LONDON CANALS

9/8/2018

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The Paddington Arm - now hit by drought restrictions

The impact of the drought is steadily moving south to impact on increasingly large areas of the system, with London the latest as the rivers feeding the Grand Union and Paddington Arm drying up.

C&RT has told boaters: “Following the long period of dry hot weather there are continued low flows of water from the river tributaries that feed the Grand Union Canal, including the Paddington Arm.

“This is also the only supply of water for the Regent’s Canal through Hampstead Rd Locks in Camden and this is having a direct impact on the water levels on this long stretch of water (The Paddington Arm).

“Whenever water is passed through Camden to feed the Regent’s the level drops. Due to these constant low levels we have had to take the difficult decision to put in place temporary overnight lock closures in key locations to preserve water.”

The Trust has listed the locks that will be closed between 9.00 at night and 7.00 in the morning from Friday 10 August
•            Grand Union - Lock 90 Top Lock only.
•             Regent’s - Hampstead Rd Lock both locks
•             Regent’s – Acton’s Lock top gates
•             Regent’s – Old Ford Lock – top gates
•             Regent’s – Mile End Lock -top gates
•             Hertford Union – Lock 1 – top gates

It says: “We are monitoring the situation constantly and will look at reopening the locks as soon as practically possible please be patient during this unprecedented time and contact us on 0303 040 4040 for local updates and further information.”

The first drought closures were on the Northern canals with a massive stretch of the Leeds and Liverpool between Wigan and Skipton shut as well as the Huddersfield Narrow and Rochdale canals. The Lancaster Canal’s Glasson locks remain shut.

Later the summits of the Oxford canal were hit by drought with overnight closures to save water and now the Grand Union and central London canals are being hit. So far the Kennet and Avon is unaffected as are canals like the Shropshire Union and Staffs and Worcester – which benefit from large volumes of outflow from major city sewage works and the Llangollen, which actually carries water from the River Dee to a reservoir at it’s meeting with the Shropshire Union.

Brief storms have broken the drought in many places, but there is still insufficient rainfall to refill reservoirs or replace water lost within the canals themselves, through lock leakage and evaporation, as well as leaks in some canals.

Until the weather changes and there is a consistent spell of rain it seems unlikely that any of the closures and other restrictions will be lifted.
Unfortunately the closures coincide with the main holiday season and many boaters and hire companies are having to constantly change their plans to account for them, sometimes at some cost.

The Shropshire Union Canal at Brewood - unaffected by drought as it is fed by Wolverhampton's sewage works

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EVEN THOUGH THE BIT THAT FINALLY OPENED 200 YEARS AGO IS NOW CLOSED

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PLEASE SHARE WITH THOSE WHO NEED TO KNOW

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