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Incident bridge 101a T&M


Neil2

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Just a warning to anyone cruising the Stone - Barlaston section during the school holidays, as we were passing under this bridge earlier today a load of debris was dumped on us through the bridge ceiling - it's a disused railway bridge - and when we emerged the other side we were pelted with stones and sticks, the youths responsible hiding behind the bridge parapet.  One of these missiles, a large stick, hit my wife on the head.  A lucky shot of course but I thought the police should be alerted and they attended about half an hour later.  That might have scared off the brave little soldiers but I though it as well to post the incident as there's a lot of traffic up here at the moment.  

 

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I do hope that Mrs Neil2 is OK. Even with a glancing blow, such incidents will be very, very unsettling and spoil your boating for some time as you will always be keeping an eye out for what "might happen".

Also interested what, if any, feedback you get from the police. On the scale of recent atrocities, I guess this will be fairly low down in their priorities, and yes, i know such attacks on boats have been happening for years, but if there is no effective policing of such incidents, then no one will think they are accountable for anything. Also feedback to the "victims", even if it is "well, we had a look for them, and couldn't find anyone" is better than silence.

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Sorry to hear that. We were there this morning too but we saw nothing amiss.

This stretch through Stone, Barlaston and Trentham always appears quiet and well cared for.

The Aldi, a short walk from Hemheath Bridge (106), seems to be attracting more boaters to pause there these days too.

 

Edited by Peter-Bullfinch
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4 hours ago, frangar said:

That's not a stretch that I would expect trouble I must admit. Were the police sympathetic? Could have been nasty.

Its often the case that problems in life happen when/where least expected. I have only been stoned on the boat twice in 28 years. Once was going through Knottingley which didn't amaze me as I had policed that area so know there are plenty of scrotes about but the other two times it happened were both at Thrupp on the Oxford canal which is rather poncy. Weird innitt.

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3 hours ago, mrsmelly said:

Its often the case that problems in life happen when/where least expected. I have only been stoned on the boat twice in 28 years. Once was going through Knottingley which didn't amaze me as I had policed that area so know there are plenty of scrotes about but the other two times it happened were both at Thrupp on the Oxford canal which is rather poncy. Weird innitt.

Stoned on a boat. With the amount of cannabis we have smelt not an unusual occurance, but I am glad it happened to you only as an ex policeman.

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3 hours ago, mrsmelly said:

Its often the case that problems in life happen when/where least expected. I have only been stoned on the boat twice in 28 years. Once was going through Knottingley which didn't amaze me as I had policed that area so know there are plenty of scrotes about but the other two times it happened were both at Thrupp on the Oxford canal which is rather poncy. Weird innitt.

Once at Knottingley and twice at Thrupp makes three. And this was posted before we went for a drink!!

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1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:

They were trying to get rid of you :captain:

It worked :D

17 minutes ago, bastion said:

Once at Knottingley and twice at Thrupp makes three. And this was posted before we went for a drink!!

:P

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At this time of year, that is the School Holidays, the activities of the antisocial increase. I believe this forum may well have the means to reduce it. 

Taking general descriptions, time and locations and having a means of passing this details onto the police, the CRT/ Waterway owners or both could be done through a separate posting heading.

Relevant information is key to providing assistance-

So for

(1) Attacks

Description of the culprits should include clothing colours and type, hair style, ethnic origins ( IC1 White, IC2 Mediterranean, IC3 Afro Carribean, IC4 Asian etc), numbers, rough age, boys, girls, youths etc. Descriptions help other passing boaters through keeping them informed, and so they too can report on these offenders. 

(2) Antisocial Behaviour

Reporting to a website of cases of people in the act of defacing by graffiti, riding motorbikes or other ic vehicles on the towpath, fly tipping or banned substance use and abuse.

(3) Arson

It is not unknown for the box of matches to come out and infrastructure or boats being seriously damaged by those who find fun in setting such items alight. Again any descriptions of people involved would benefit through an entry posted onto a suitable website.

 

Even if such information is noted down and passed on later, any such details will help keep the waterways network a safer place to be.

 

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In these days when quite a few people carry mobile phones which double as cameras, surely it should be easy to capture these aggressors on film (or whatever the digital devices use in place of film), thus aiding positive identification.

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1 hour ago, Heartland said:

At this time of year, that is the School Holidays, the activities of the antisocial increase. I believe this forum may well have the means to reduce it.

Taking general descriptions, time and locations and having a means of passing this details onto the police, the CRT/ Waterway owners or both could be done through a separate posting heading.

Relevant information is key to providing assistance-

So for

(1) Attacks

Description of the culprits should include clothing colours and type, hair style, ethnic origins ( IC1 White, IC2 Mediterranean, IC3 Afro Carribean, IC4 Asian etc), numbers, rough age, boys, girls, youths etc. Descriptions help other passing boaters through keeping them informed, and so they too can report on these offenders.

(2) Antisocial Behaviour

Reporting to a website of cases of people in the act of defacing by graffiti, riding motorbikes or other ic vehicles on the towpath, fly tipping or banned substance use and abuse.

(3) Arson

It is not unknown for the box of matches to come out and infrastructure or boats being seriously damaged by those who find fun in setting such items alight. Again any descriptions of people involved would benefit through an entry posted onto a suitable website.

 

Even if such information is noted down and passed on later, any such details will help keep the waterways network a safer place to be.

 

Important also I would suggest to keep records of the police response, if any.

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FWIW the police were far more interested/concerned than I expected.  We had two follow up calls, one to say officers had attended but not surprisingly the youths had scarpered, but the officers took the trouble to speak to a boater moored not far away who confirmed that a gang of youths had been lurking around the said bridge earlier in the day. He might have been able to assist the police with a description. The second call later on was to make sure we were both unharmed and there was no damage to the boat.  

I suspect the rarity of incidents such as this in that area provoked the interest.    

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9 hours ago, Neil2 said:

FWIW the police were far more interested/concerned than I expected.  We had two follow up calls, one to say officers had attended but not surprisingly the youths had scarpered, but the officers took the trouble to speak to a boater moored not far away who confirmed that a gang of youths had been lurking around the said bridge earlier in the day. He might have been able to assist the police with a description. The second call later on was to make sure we were both unharmed and there was no damage to the boat.  

I suspect the rarity of incidents such as this in that area provoked the interest.    

That's a better response than I would have expected too! Hopefully they will now keep monitoring the area for any more antisocial behaviour. Glad it was worth reporting and hope the rest of your travels are less scary! 

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