Alan de Enfield

From the Guardian : Signs and wonders. Portents and omens. A walk along an old canalway can stretch the imagination just as effectively as it can the hamstrings. I find myself reading the land like you might read a palm or tea leaves, looking for signs of what’s to come. It’s been more than 150 years since this section of the West Deane Way was part of the Grand Western Canal, but today, after all the recent rain, it feels like the ghost of the canal is rising up again. Shifting seasons, record-breaking wetness, unseasonal warmth – weather is no longer a simple fact but a series of symptoms, clues to the cause, signposts to the future. Trudging along in the mud and drizzle, I’m finding it hard to shake the gloom, but my heart lifts at the sight of the canal bank appliquéd with primroses, pale pink lady’s smock, and a sprinkling of greater stitchwort – each of its five petals so deeply lobed that they look like pairs of white embroidery stitches side by side. The name is linked to the plant’s ability to ease the “stitch” you get in the side when you’ve been running too hard, a pain thought to be caused by the devil pricking you with a needle. The hills here are mostly arable and pasture, luscious green in the spring rain, with square frames of hedging. The air zizzes with the overhead pylons, but down at my level it’s full of birds. Tits and finches frantically dash about with that crazed single-mindedness they seem to have at this time of year, and I can’t shake off a petulant chiffchaff, just going on and on about the same thing. I am stopped in my tracks by something lying by the path. Dark emerald sheen, as still as a stone. It’s a lapwing. Freshly dead and perfect, its crest curled up like a single brushstroke of ink. I look up, stupidly, as though the sky still held its falling path. I’ve never seen a lapwing in these parts. A common bird of my childhood, its numbers have halved in the past 25 years. It’s so beautiful close up that it seems almost mythic – a visitor from another realm. I pick it up, its body not yet rigid, and lay it carefully in the hedgerow, in among the stitchwort, on the side of the gods.

Horse carriages (well the ones we use - maybe the Kings 'big' carriages are different) are all built to be 4' 6 1/2" (55 1/2") standard to ensure an 'even playing field' when driving competitions. British Track Gauge & Loading Gauge (igg.org.uk) Today the gauge is set at four foot eight and three eighths inches (1.432m) and is maintained to an accuracy of better than a tenth of an inch (2.5mm) to allow high speed running.

Then the 'twirlers' complain to an MP that parents are being discriminated against, so, 'long story short', MP tells C&RT to change the guidelines, C&RT change the 'rules' for movement of boaters with school age children. Now, boaters without children are being disciminated against. Then change the law ! (as above)

I'm very sorry if I use words beyond your comprehension level, maybe you could ask an adult to assist you ?

So you only have steps on the 'outside', must make it difficult to exit !

Did you read what I suggested ? If attempt to remove it was made it would be destroyed - a bit like the security seals, and if it was destroyed then ............

Don't some car insurers offer a discount if you have a tracker fitted ? C&RT could do the same : Boat licence £5000, fit a tracker and get a monthly rebate.

Tracker 'breaks' or is 'lost' then no rebate - licence costs you £5000. There is a financial incentive not to damage the tracker.

I did make a suggestion a few years ago when C&RT were previously looking at this..................... Standard licence fee is (say) £5000. There is a staggered rebate for every mile travelled thru the year - maybe £20.00 per mile for the 1st 100 miles, £10 per miles for the next 100 miles , £5 per miles for the next .......................... and so on for someone 'travelling the system over the year it could end up much cheaper than now. Don't move and you are basically paying your £1000 licence and £4000 for a mooring. The big Elephant in the room (which no one will accept) is that each boat would need to be fitted with a non-removable tracker. It can be done ! This was the earlier proposal : There is a standard licence fee based on a boat over 12 metres length, from that there are adders and subtractions. (This is before the days of having a 'beam' surchasrge). Multiply by :-

Am I understanding correctly ? 1) The Webby provides hot water to the radiators , they get hot ? 2) There is no hot water coming out of the sink / shower taps ? So the webby is working and producing hot water, it is just not getting to the taps ?

As a lifeboat it would not have been built compliant with the RCD / RCR as they are not covered, however, if it was converted to a recreational boat (post 1998) is should have been surveyed and approved to the RCD requirements. But, as with much of the waterways ................... 'should be' ............. is rarely applied.

It doesn't exactly fit with usage on the canals either ! Maybe PM'd (Permanently Moored) would fit the bill, or, if they were breasted up, they could be suffering from PMT (Permanently Moored Together)

I just cannot see any interconnection of any of the 3 battery positive terminals. The centre battery does have 5 cables on the negative terminal which is (at best) bad practice, and doesn't comply with the Boat Wiring specification requirements.

The actual transfer documents give C&RT a few more 'responsibilities' 2.1 Subject to Clause 2.2 and 2.3, to hold in trust and retain in perpetuity for public benefit the Infrastructure Property for the following purposes: 2.1.1 to operate and manage the Infrastructure Property for public benefit, use and enjoyment including: (a) for navigation; (b) for walking on towpaths; and (c) for recreation or other leisure-time pursuits of the public in the interest of their health and social welfare; 2.1.2 to protect and conserve, for public benefit, sites, objects and buildings of archaeological, architectural, engineering or historic interest on, in the vicinity of, or otherwise associated with the Infrastructure Property; 2.1.3 to further, for public benefit, the conservation, protection and improvement of the natural environment and landscape of the Infrastructure Property.

But without them C&RT would have no accountability. The 'accountability' that they allegedly have to the Council doesn't work. They have been 'called to account' on several occassions where the known facts differ from what C&RT publish and it is only the publication of the FOIs that force them to 'correct' their press releases / publications. If you are happy to have C&RT publishing falsehoods, massaging the financial accounts, 'adjusting' the results of the KPIs such that DEFRA do an investigation etc etc. Then you are complicit.