One boater I am going to name and shame!

We picked him up not long after Gnosall. Until then our journey had been very pleasant having once more set off just after 7am. Still no lie in for me but what was the point of laying in bed when one was awake. And anyway, cruising early in the morning can be a real pleasure.

We first became aware of this moron (I make no excuses of calling him that) whilst we were passing a long line of moored boats. As per normal we travelled just above tickover at roughly 800rpm. Suddenly from behind us we could here clanging and banging and looking round noticed this speeding boater baring rapidly down on us. The wash was ridiculous and no wonder the boats cladding pins were clattering the piling. God help anyone on just pins! Anyway he had to slow down because of us but sat right on our back button the whole time. I kept looking back shaking my head and glaring at him but it was like water of a ducks back. Once past the line of boats we put the power on. Now normally we like to keep to between 1300 and 1400 rpm. This time to get away from him we cranked it up to 1500rpm. Ian then took out our Garman GPS finder to check on our speed. We averaged 3.5mph still a tad fast for our liking but,as we produced no wash, felt it acceptable. When I looked round again there he was. Roughly 10-15 feet from our stern. And still gaining!!! Both of us looked at each other and said 'Sod him'. We wont be bullied and no way would we let him pass. So for 6 miles he sat on our tail. At moored boats we made sure to go as slow as possible just to P him off. It was a shame that we had to stop for diesel at Wheaton Aston 'cause we would have gone up Wheaton Aston lock very very slowly. Now of course I don't know his name but the boats name is Nile. If anyone out there knows him tell him he should get away from his motorway mentality or give up cruising because he certainly has no right to be on the canals!

Okay I've said my piece so now I can calm down. Once this moron was no longer an issue, we did enjoy the rest of the cruise. Quite cold today and even had to put a coat on over the pullover. Still it stayed dry until we moored at Cross Green on the Staffs and Worcester. So here are a few of my piccys on our travels,

This scene is typical of the Shroppie.

 A BEFORE AND AFTER PICTURE

This first photo was taken back in June and the towpath and moorings were completely obscured by the undergrowth.





After Ian sent my photos and a strong letter of complaint to C&RT, this was the outcome. (I have copied the email sent to Ian at the bottom of this post.)

And now. The same length of towpath.

This is what we expect!

Autherley junction stop lock

Marsh Lane bridge and the start of the narrows

And now for the reply.

 

Dear Mr Jameison,  Thank you for your comments regarding the vegetation within the West Midlands. This is something that we share your frustration on and have spent a significant amount of time trying to address with our contractors and contracts team. The problems have been building up and have been caused by a combination of problems such as the specification, the contractor falling behind programme and perfect growing conditions.

Since your journey we have already dealt with the lock sides as they were totally unacceptable and implemented several improvements to the specification and delivery mechanism to help with our current issues, in particular on the Staffs and Worcester canal where most of our issues are. These are below and are already showing an improvement. One thing also worth noting is that West Midlands have always cut our vegetation 6 times per year, however I believe other areas do it 9 times per year and we are looking to try and standardise this.

·          All towpaths are cut to 1.6m irrespective of the towpath width,

·          Increase in the number of teams undertaking the work,

·          Reed Fringes will be removed 20m either side of bridge to improve visibility,

·          Reed fringes will be removed for approximately one third of the canal length to improve mooring and visibility issues. The remainder will be kept as we must not forget that the canal is a conservation area and we are trying to make it haven for wildlife.

·          Implementation of a team to patrol the canal and rake out grass and reed which has fallen into the canal

·          Additional supervision on the ground, far above our normal requirement to ensure we get back on track as soon as possible.

 With regard to the offside trees on the Birmingham and Fazeley we are aware of these and have them planned in for this year and having boated the Staffs & Worcester last week I did identify some area to our contracts team that also need addressing.

Whilst I hope that you can see that we have acknowledges the issues and tried to address them in the short term Vince Moran has already set up a review of our specification and contract management to ensure these issues are not repeated in future years as its not just West Midlands that are facing issues at present.

To finish on appositive note, I went out this week to see the current issues and speak to our customers for myself and whilst there is still work to be done there were positive signs out there that things are getting better and overall people were happy apart from the vegetation in the canal and the amount of times they have had to clean out the weed hatch.

I trust this is all acceptable but please let me know if you require any further information.

Kind regards

Ian Lane

Acting Waterway Manager

West Midlands Waterway

T: 01827 252054    

E: ian.lane@canalrivertrust.org.uk

Now for today's wildlife,

Well it's a duck isn't it?