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Bingley this morning


Travis

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Just a little rant.

 

This morning we only wanted to go down the five rise around 9am. We had to wait, fair enough, no problem.

 

By 10am there were two gazebos with (at least 6 green or blue shirted ID fobbed volunteers), Kennet (6 more hands) a "Community" boat with only 1 hand (and a fob) who moored on the water point after we locked him up because he was single handed and announced he was mooring there all day to let the kids visit the boat. No kids in particular, just any passing kids, those with a BW key who I think who were going to the sanitary station, but not with a boat because he was moored on the point. There were signs attached to every spare railing promoting C&RT, communty boats Walls Ice Cream and everything.

 

And one bally lock keeper.....The poor fella was run off his feet.

 

He explained how earlier in the week he had to look after the five rise and the three rise at the same time. By 10 30 the poor lad was knackered and rang his line manager (?) for help. They sent a man from Lancashire to aid him who's only transport was a bike.... honestly.

 

We left the bottom lock at 11 30.

 

Is this the way things are going to be in the future? Gawd help ya, did I mention I've sold Travis? biggrin.png

 

Rant over.

 

.

 

 

 

 

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It was a CRT open day at Bingley today. Not sure what area the blue shirted bods volunteer in, but the green ones are education volunteers, who work with local kids.

 

You would have thought that there would be plenty of staff about to keep the place moving though!

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Hello

 

It was The Bingley Five Rise Family day today. The people running it were CRT educational Volunteers. The Community boat and the Kennet were there as part of the Family day. Part of the idea of the Family Day is to promote the canal system because whether we like it or not the people running the show are now a charity and if we are going to keep the canals out of the hands of developers and their ilk then we need as much publicity and money as we can get. The locky there is generally run off his feet and should have more help than he has. He does have a volunteer lock keeper but he is not allowed to lock boats in or out.

 

The Community boat should not have moored on the water point and I will have a word with the Bingley co-ordinator when I see him although he is a non-boater and probably wasn't aware of that. Having said that the Community boat hand should have known better IMO and if he reads this he will probably chew my head off, when I see him, for saying that. I do agree that whilst we should be educating people about the canals, both boaters and non-boaters, we should also not be p*****g off boaters going about their legitimate business. I wasn't there today but I will be there for other events during next week and I am a boater.

 

Whilst I am agreeing with you that some things should, apparently, have been done differently today at Bingley Five Rise. All the green shirted, fobbed people are volunteers giving up their spare time to educate young people and families about our canals and the history and heritage of said. They are doing it because they are passionate about our canal system and they believe (as do I ) that, possibly the best way to do that is to get em young to tell them about the canals and how this country would not be a leading industrial nation without the canals which kick started that revolution. We do not know whether this approach will work or not but we are trying. Most of the green shirts are not boaters but still share a passion for the canals. Also now that CRT is a charity, whether we like that or not, they have to have an educational policy to qualify for some grants.

 

ATB Pete

 

 

 

Pete

  • Greenie 3
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Greenie Pete.

 

 

Barry has an MBE for his work on the five rise over the decades but is now part of the "Rapid Response" team. Whatever that is.

My guess would be it means he goes where he is needed.

 

An effort at being efficient with their 'human resources' ~

Edited by The Dog House
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Why have a volunteer lock keeper if he is not allowed to lock boats in and out? is he just to make the tea?

 

I suspect that the volunteer is only there to work under the direction of the paid staff rather like crews of boats do when Barrie sees you through the flight. The Five Rise is a bit of a beast to operate and a mistake could be costly so I guess they only entrust it's operation to 'full timers'.

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As one of the Kennet volunteers, I have to raise a tentative hand as causing the water point problem. Kennet had been tied at the top of the locks for a few days, with a padlock and chain for security. When the community boat arrived on Sunday morning, a search had to be made for the padlock key so that we could move Kennet towards the lock and give sufficient room for the community boat plus access to the water point. We have two groups of volunteers, one who move Kennet, and one who staff openings and educational events. Group two were there on Sunday, and we were unsure where the key to the padlock had been stored, so moving Kennet took a bit longer than it should. However, I don't think those on the community boat would have been too worried about people accessing the water point across their boat; not the best long-term solution, but surely OK in the short-term.

 

Having worked on the L&LC as both a professional and a volunteer for over forty years, I do wonder about the way new volunteers - and staff - are being introduced to the canal. There does need to be more co-ordination between the various volunteers on the canal, for example with those whose interests lie more with the natural environment being educated about the built environment, and vice versa. Unfortunately, as with most British management, there are very few people with an extensive detailed knowledge of the many aspects of their business, in this case canals. People tend to have one speciality, and little knowledge outside of that speciality. The result is that volunteers either don't recognise when boats need help, or are expected to stick to their particular volunteering area. That is a specific example of how things are run today, with some areas or businesses being better than others in the way volunteers are organised and educated. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a simple cheap solution. However, we are always looking for people to join the L&LC Society and to help on Kennet! (see www.llcs.org.uk)

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When we went up the 5 rise there were 5 lockies on duty who worked us through in an hour and a quarter, part way through the lockie from the 3 rise arrived to give them a hand . They told us they were getting bored as they had so few boats to work though just 4 the day we went and 2 the previous Sunday.

 

Top cat ( having just done 21 locks on our own in under 3 hours)

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When we went up the 5 rise there were 5 lockies on duty who worked us through in an hour and a quarter, part way through the lockie from the 3 rise arrived to give them a hand . They told us they were getting bored as they had so few boats to work though just 4 the day we went and 2 the previous Sunday.

 

Top cat ( having just done 21 locks on our own in under 3 hours)

Yes it's quiet up here partly due to twerps who run the Northern system down.

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If that was the Wolverhampton 21, what kept you?

Yes it was the Wolverhampton 21 and we had a hire boat go up just in front of us so we had to reset every lock, but we stayed with them despite having less than half the crew. When we have had the flight to ourselves we have done it in 2 1/2 hrs which I know is nowhere near the record. But it's a nice flight evertything works and the lower bit is in nice countryside. Now sheltering from the rain at Pelsall

 

TC

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Yes it was the Wolverhampton 21 and we had a hire boat go up just in front of us so we had to reset every lock, but we stayed with them despite having less than half the crew. When we have had the flight to ourselves we have done it in 2 1/2 hrs which I know is nowhere near the record. But it's a nice flight evertything works and the lower bit is in nice countryside. Now sheltering from the rain at Pelsall

 

TC

 

Hm, one time we went up the 21 took a while because the flight was almost empty - we had to scoot up to the top and let water down.

Another time we had loads of "attention" from the local youth. They were friendly but only, I suspect, because we were friendly first.

Neither event took away from our enjoyment.

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Whilst sharing some locks on monday with a posse of CRT peeps I was chatting to the lock keeper manager for the L&L, Didn't get his name but he had been a lock keeper then went into management. I specifically asked him why there were so few volunteer Lockies on the L&L (i've never seen one) and he said there were five or six at the 5 rise (no surprise there really) but they hadn't got round to sorting any out anywhere else (barrowford would be an obvious one). I asked about Barry and yes hes not on the 5 rise permanently now but does provide cover/assistance as needed.

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Typical of management moving a skilled people person like Barry from a visitors honeypot.

 

I've managed lots of teams (both paid and volunteers) and still do, and actually it would be far easier (and a sign of lazy management) to leave things as they were. To me its a sign someone was thinking about the bigger picture and providing Barry's knowledge and skill is not lost and indeed can be passed on to others, then it can only be a good thing in the long term.

 

to me its a good sign of some proper modern professional management rather than the civil service/public sector mismanagement of the past...

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Why have a volunteer lock keeper if he is not allowed to lock boats in and out? is he just to make the tea?

The educational volunteers are just that. They are not volunteer lockkeepers.

 

The volunteer lockkeepers can and DO lock boats through the five locks, under the supervision of the CRT duty lockkeeper.

 

Sunday 9th of June was unfortunate, as no volunteers were available on that day. That should not happen in future, and transit through the staircase should take no longer than normal.

Edited by majorminor
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