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Long Eaton Lock


hughc

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Planning our only significant trip this year I checked as you do for emergency stoppages on the Erewash. There are none, nor are any listed in the winter stoppage programme published in the last few days. Having been caught out in the past by unlisted stoppages on this canal I then checked on the notices tab, a very small tab indeed, on the CART website. This tells me that there is a complete stoppage on Long Eaton lock from the 19th of September until the 9th of October. If this was an emergency stoppage it would already be closed. If a planned stoppage it should be listed in the published programme. This is going to happen in the early Autumn a prime cruising period between the school summer holidays and the October mid-term. I am aware that the Erewash gets less traffic than many routes but those of us who use it pay the same extortionate licence fees as boaters on the rest of the system. I can't see a better used route being closed with no listed stoppage notice. If any one else is caught out by this please do as I have done and ask CART what the hell is going on. Regards, HughC.

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I have now received a reply from CART who say that they identified this lock as being suitable for an early autumn stoppage after consultation with the Erewash Canal Preservation and Development Association. Now I realise that the Erewash is not a destination of choice for many boaters but there are some disturbing elements to this decision. Firstly why on earth should the views of the ECP & DA have an effect on every ones use of the canal. I have, over the years used the Erewash far more than any member the ECP&DA and no one asked my opinion. Secondly CART state in their reply that they are always looking for ways of spreading major stoppages over the year. It would seem that CART can choose which 'stakeholders' they consult with over when to close a canal. They say that this was advertised in January so it will have been easily missed though having been caught out by stoppages on the Erewash I keep a close eye on the stoppage lists and I didn't spot it.Today it is the Erewash next year it may be any of the more popular routes after they have consulted with who ever they choose to justify their decision.CART would I am sure would like there to be a 'boating season' and this would appear to end at the beginning of September. It is, for example, a short step from consulting with an un-representative canal society to consulting with angling interests over closures for large fishing matches. This is not an ill considered rant it is a wake up call. I believe CART are gradually changing the conditions under which they operate the system.

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I have now received a reply from CART who say that they identified this lock as being suitable for an early autumn stoppage after consultation with the Erewash Canal Preservation and Development Association. Now I realise that the Erewash is not a destination of choice for many boaters but there are some disturbing elements to this decision. Firstly why on earth should the views of the ECP & DA have an effect on every ones use of the canal. I have, over the years used the Erewash far more than any member the ECP&DA and no one asked my opinion. Secondly CART state in their reply that they are always looking for ways of spreading major stoppages over the year. It would seem that CART can choose which 'stakeholders' they consult with over when to close a canal. They say that this was advertised in January so it will have been easily missed though having been caught out by stoppages on the Erewash I keep a close eye on the stoppage lists and I didn't spot it.Today it is the Erewash next year it may be any of the more popular routes after they have consulted with who ever they choose to justify their decision.CART would I am sure would like there to be a 'boating season' and this would appear to end at the beginning of September. It is, for example, a short step from consulting with an un-representative canal society to consulting with angling interests over closures for large fishing matches. This is not an ill considered rant it is a wake up call. I believe CART are gradually changing the conditions under which they operate the system.

This is a much more complex issue than is perhaps recognised. In general, any maintenance organisation likes to spread its work as evenly as possible as this results in the most efficient (and hence lowest cost) use of resources. It is only possible to seasonalise the work if there are others things that the work force can effectively do at other times.

 

Back in the dark past, most waterways employees were generalist and the work was done without regard to many factors that today are considered essential, not least the safety of the staff themselves!

 

As a result, much as we might like it, it is not sensible to do all of the planned maintenance in the winter without taking a hit on efficiency - added to which this is a time when weather adds a further complexity in planning. It would be good to re-deploy an in-house team that do maintenance int he winter to other tasks, such as working locks or other tasks to keep boats moving, but this is neither realistic nor efficient.

 

For various reasons, generally well-regarded in maintenance circles, CaRT opted early on to increase the amount of wok outsourced to specialists. Their charges are likely to depend very much on whether they will get a steady flow of work throughout the year. It is no longer acceptable to take people on and lay them off just as the work demands. (Zero hours contracts may well have become popular for a while but the downsides are becoming all too obvious and may well be all but outlawed in the near future, even if employers don't see then as in the end costly)

 

Consultation with stakeholders is never an easy task. The first problem is to establish channels of effective communication that can be used at the right time - the planned maintenance programme is devised long before boaters can actually evaluate it for their own cruising plans. The use of user groups is possible an easy cop-out as it is cheap and meets the tick box, even if it misses many people. On the other hand, as Alan F can - and does - attest with the South East Moorings saga, getting a consensus is not simple. What if, as with the EU referendum, the result is evenly balanced. Such exercises only serve to leave a large number of people feeling upset.

 

The significant increase in planning technology is to be welcomed but a lot had to be done before obvious progress could be made. It took a lot of time to build a reliable database of all the 'assets' - ie items that might need maintenance at some time - and then to develop meaningful maintenance cycles. Elsewhere I have seem some quite misleading first attempts at this where the lack of historical data leads to guesstimates which can sometimes be wildly out, especially for the more infrequent items. For example, if you have fifty instances of a particular asset and estimate that on average they need a good overhaul once in 25 years then you can try to plan to do 2 or perhaps 3 each year, supported by inspection data to prioritise. However, estimating that frequency is hopelessly inaccurate and it might easily be that the cycle is 10 years, or even 30 years. The available data might support any point in that range but the impact on budgets an schedules is substantial.

 

I would doubt if the current strategies can be assessed for their effectiveness until we are at least the greater part of the way through the longest cycles - these in any case may well be the more expensive ones. For example, how often will the Pontcysllte trough have to be renewed? Short term over-reaction is not sensible, although I would expect any effective management to be monitoring it continuously. But a shift from largely reactive maintenance to more planned maintenance cannot happen overnight.

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