As to Bank vegetation and cuts biting...
I notice the edges are left uncut on certain canals and have been for years.
I think the managers on these either don't want it cut or don't care if it
isn't cut as they are not end users like us poor....
In some places plants actually growing in canals which narrow it to a
single lane. On one canal we regularly use (by accident we understand) these
got dredged out. Now they are being allowed to grow back.
On the same canal if you walk along the cut section of the towpath the
ferns, gorse and other plants are so high that they nearly block sight of the
canal. Meanwhile some towpaths in the same area are being 'improved' by digging
up all the plants (often in sections where the grass is cut regularly and
primroses and other flowers used to look beautiful in spring) and replacing
them with a solid bike path down the centre with soil seeded with grass-seed on
both sides.
One visitor from another area told us he had never seen anything like it
and wondered if BW planned to make the canal difficult to keep visiting boat
numbers down.. (As they do on the Monty.)
One gains the impression that BW is controlled by a lot of townies who
foist their ideas on our country canals - including making anything that looks
vaguely green into a no-cut SSSI.
One BW man told us his main job was to pull green floating foliage from the
upsteam SSSI out of the gate paddles of locks where the mess of green pelt
stopped them from closing - this being helped by the safety shutters now
fitted. As fast as he pulled it out more floated down - meaning his team - with
their few BW workers left on the section - was effectively minus him for most
of the time. So much for BW using money efficiently.
Baz Juniper <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On 9 Nov 2007, at 12:43, Will Chapman wrote:
> Judy Voets wrote:
>> "ow Do Will ... When I lifted a gate on the Kennet and Avon
>> We phoned BW and the crew showed up in less then a hour and it only
>> took them about 45 minutes to set it right. At least that's my
>> recollection. Judy thinks it was about 90 minutes. Maybe Andy
>> Greener has a better memory than us ;-}
>> Andy ... what do you think ...
>>
>
> 'lo Stan (and Judy)
>
> Did that occur before the Defra cuts? I imagine that the response
> time has suffered since the cuts (but have no evidence to confirm
> that is true).
In August of this year we were followed up the Devizes flight on the
K&A by two crews [of Americans...] who lifted a gate off Lock 27 at
about 7pm one evening. BW had it back in place by lunchtime the next
day. In the same week they'd fished a sunken hire boat out of Lock
13 on the Bath Flight, not an easy place to get a crane to, in about
24 hrs. However, the bankside vegetation tells us where the cuts are
biting.
Baz
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