What is a C&RT emergency?

[biggles47]

Leading on from the shutting gate behind you thread. It was a Saturday and the long pound was very low due to the leakage overnight. Quite a few boats were stuck but I just about scraped by.

 

Anyway, I phoned the C&RT only to hear an automated message saying the office was closed until Monday and an emergency number was given.

 

My question is, what do they mean by an emergency? If it was a real emergency I'd phone 999. Is it a C&RT emergency when hire boaters can't get through due to low water or a breakdown at a lock for example?

[Rob-M]

I would treat something that prevents navigation as an emergency, for example a sunken boat or fallen tree blocking the canal.

[Paul C]

CRT solve low pounds by flowing water down from an upper pound. I don't see why its necessary to call CRT out for a low pound, if you're able to do this yourself.

[Tony Dunkley]

Anything that disrupts either the vital Monday to Friday process of increasing the shine on the seats of the office chairs, or one of the numerous and pointless meetings that are convened for the sole purpose of deciding when the next meeting should be scheduled for.

[MtB]

Change the record Tony.

[ditchcrawler]

I have always found that if I ring at weekends on the " Emergency" the service is pretty good. The operator who is just a call answer-er wont have a clue, but provided you can tell her which canal you are on and other details she will contact the duty supervisor. This is normally a man on the ground who knows a bit about canals and he will ring you back. and if necessary have a team out

[magnetman]

CRT solve low pounds by flowing water down from an upper pound. I don't see why its necessary to call CRT out for a low pound, if you're able to do this yourself.

That's true but if the next lock down is quite close it needs the be handled carefully so I would not really be advising boaters to run water down. They could make the problem worse.

The op mentioned the long pound but not sure where this is maybe Milton Keynes?

[Tony Dunkley]

CRT solve low pounds by flowing water down from an upper pound. I don't see why its necessary to call CRT out for a low pound, if you're able to do this yourself.

 

The correct terminology is 'running water', and in light of the fact that a great many pounds are kept well below 'weir' instead of fixing bank leaks, it would be more accurate to say C&RT don't 'solve low pounds', . . . they create them, and in the process of doing so make matters even worse for the future because keeping pounds low allows the puddle to dry out, causing cracks in it which then leak even more.

Edited September 1, 2016 by Tony Dunkley

[magnetman]

Its an outrage

[zenataomm]

If you're not an employee of C&RT, then you're a customer.

So it's not your responsibility to decide what an emergency is, it's theirs.

Especially if it's something you can't or won't want to get involved in yourself.

And as such they will evaluate and either respond or ignore.

However in order to do so they need to know what's happening out on the network.

 

If you see something you don't feel happy about ....... dandelions facing the wrong way ...... smoke belching out of a tunnel,

then tell them.

Problems are supposed to be their issue not yours.

 

However I have Tirfor'ed my boat out of locks and walked up to a mile to run water down so I can get over a cill and out of a lock.

I've woken up to find a small tree across my boat and chainsawed it up to get it out and onto the bank. I've kebbed masonry out from behind gates. I've knocked on boats to get half a dozen hefty chaps so we could reseat a swing bridge that wouldn't fully open.

Mainly because I knew what to do and didn't want to wait hours while understaffed operatives are probably taken off another job.

 

It's up to you really.

[Graham Davis]

Anything that disrupts either the vital Monday to Friday process of increasing the shine on the seats of the office chairs, or one of the numerous and pointless meetings that are convened for the sole purpose of deciding when the next meeting should be scheduled for.

 

Boring!!

Change the record!!

Edited September 1, 2016 by Graham Davis

[FadeToScarlet]

They turned out in just over an hour when I had an obstruction at a bridge of a fallen pipe- which contained a large 25,000 volt cable.

 

Edit- quicker than the fire brigade (the cable got cut, and started arcing to earth at the end of the pipe) and the electric companies.

Edited September 1, 2016 by FadeToScarlet

[DeanS]

Being stuck on a sandbank in the middle of the River Aire (I think it is), at 4pm on a Friday, with kids on board...and the fear of the bottom of the boat being stuck by vacuum to the mud beneath while the river levels rise (this sinking a boat), and with father in law on next bridge wondering how he'll get back on board before nightfall or sleep in the bushes....is....

 

not...

an

emergency.

 

as I found out.

 

My son Googled the procedure for unsticking a boat by swaying it from side to side, which eventually worked, with me revving the Lister engine madly in reverse.

[Horace42]

Will it cost CRT money if it is not fixed. Will a CRT employee be identified as liable and held accountable if not fixed.

If the answer is no - then it is not an emergency for CRT.

You might be sinking or on fire - but that is your emergency - not CRT's.

[gaggle]

Change the record Tony.

If the tune playing is in the right chord why change it

[billS]

...and the fear of the bottom of the boat being stuck by vacuum to the mud beneath while the river levels rise (this sinking a boat),

 

Can that actually occur? I would have thought not - given the number of boats on tidal berths.