It's unusual for the mooring at Bridge 80 on the Coventry to be empty, but lots of moorings we'd expected to find crowded had been deserted, so we didn't think much of it. A possible explanation presented itself this morning, however.
We were having a relaxed start to the day, drinking a cup of tea in bed and listening to Wogan wittering on. By eight o'clock we'd begun to think seriously of getting up when there came a faint sense of someone getting on and off the boat. I got up and went through to the engine room, where I heard someone outside saying something about "there's no response."
I opened the stern doors, and there was a contractor from the building site opposite. He'd been knocking on the doors, not realising it couldn't be heard further down the boat, not over Wogan, anyway.
It seemed that they were preparing to remove some trees from the offside, by the time honoured method of knocking them over with the digger, and were rightly concerned about the safety of the boat. I remonstrated about doing things that restricted the navigation without notifying BW, and he claimed that they knew all about it. The plan was to pile about 60 metres of the offside, and BW were coming out that morning to agree the line.
This makes three times recently I've had cause to complain about communication, or lack of it, from the West Midlands unit of BW, which has recently been combined with Central Shires as part of the cutbacks arising from the Defra budget cuts. I'll come to the subsequent email exchange later.
We dressed in a hurry and moved the boat down the canal to another section of towpath where there's reasonable mooring, where we had a now rather belated breakfast.
The rest of the day was comparatively uneventful - we stopped on the first water point in Fazeley and filled the tank, then boated on down to Alrewas, arriving there just on lunchtime.
The weather by now was glorious, so there was nothing for it but to take everything off the roof and wash it together with the port side next to the towpath. Barkeeper's Friend was used to clean the winter grime off the brass ventilator mushrooms and porthole rings.
I then sent the following email to West Mids BW:
Hi
Is there a problem with the West Mids Unit communications at the moment? I ask because
a) I had this autoreply from you on 15 March in reply to a query about the Armitage stoppage, but haven't heard anything further. (This one is now irrelevant, as we came round through the BCN anyway)
b) I emailed Jessica Black on 19 March about helping with the Towpath Tidy but haven't had a reply at all
c) Finally, we were dragged from our beds at 8 this morning by a contractor wanting us to move our boat. We'd tied on the rings at Bridge 80 on the Coventry at Whittington, and they were starting work on some offside piling right opposite us by pushing some trees over with a digger, and were rightly concerned that the boat was at risk. When I remonstrated that they shouldn't do that sort of thing without notifying Waterways, he said "Oh BW know all about it, they are coming out this morning to agree the line with us."
I take the email notification of stoppages, so I knew that there hadn't been a notice of restriction to navigation, and I've just cross checked Waterscape and it says "nothing notified" for the Coventry.
If this fall off in courtesy and communications is a result of the amalgamation of Central Shires and West Mids, perhaps we should include reference to it in the campaign against the DEFRA cuts?
When I do my next blog tomorrow, I shall be very happy to include any response you may make to this email ;-}
Cheers
Bruce
Feeling narked, I copied it to Eugene Baston, BW's Director of External Relations, since West Mids seemed a bit unreliable in the matter of replies. I duly had a friendly reply from him, of the "I'm sorry you had to write about this, but good to hear from you anyway" sort, and so far I've had this from the lady herself:
I acknowledge receipt of your email dated 26 March 2007.
We are currently investigating the details relating to your concerns and
a response will be sent to you as soon as a full report is available.
In the meantime may I thank you for making us aware of this situation.
Tuesday 27 March
A very misty start to the day, which was in many ways welcome in view of our intention to join the Willy Walk this morning. It doesn't set off until 1045, so we used the early part of the morning to buy a load of meat at Coates the butcher in the village, one of the best near a canal in the UK, I reckon. It's all local meat, killed and hung on the premises, and absolutely first rate.
Then we went off for the walk, which this time went up the canal a bit to Bagnall Lock, across country to the back of Fradley village, then down the Coventry and Trent and Mersey canals to Alrewas again. This was, of course, followed by a lunch in the pub.
The afternoon passed pleasantly (what was left of it), and we were joined by Elanor for dinner. Her route to and from Rugeley where she works from Burton where she (and officially we) lives passes right by Alrewas. These pleasures did mean that this blog didn't get done that day - the excuse for Wednesday follows shortly!
Wednesday 28 March
Definitely a leisurely start this morning - we were quite stiff after all that exercise yesterday, and in any event didn't have a lot of boating to do. We'd arranged with some fellow Braidbar owners, Graham and Carolann Richardson on Autumn Years, to meet for a pub meal at the Bridge Inn at Branston, about half way from Alrewas to Burton.
Worked down Alrewas lock onto the short section of the River Trent that links Alrewas to Wychnor. The boards were showing Proceed with Caution, and the river was quite full, but presented no real hazard to navigation.
We stopped at Barton Turns Marina to dump rubbish and recycling. I also popped into the chandlery to buy a spare oil filter. This marina used to stock some of the cheapest filters on the cut, but I paid £9.20 for this one, so maybe they've lost their competitive edge.
Filled with water at the water point below Barton Lock, and then went on to Branston Water Park. Again, this mooring which is normally pretty busy was very quiet, though it filled up a bit as the day went on.
We now had the starboard side against the towpath, so we set to and cleaned it, as we'd done the port side at Alrewas. Sheila also sawed up the remaining bits of wood on the roof, so that by the time we'd finished Sanity was starting to look much more like her summer cruising self.
Just as we finished, Autumn Years arrived. The sun was blazing down, so we sat in chairs by the towpath for tea and talk, later succeeded by red wine and talk. Suddenly it was six o'clock, and we parted company for an hour to get ready for the pub.
Seven o'clock saw us walk down to the pub, which proved to be a) smaller inside than it looks from the outside, and b) quite busy. After waiting for about ten minutes, we got a table, and looked at the menu. This was another surprise, as it was entirely Italian. A good evening was had by all, ending up back on Sanity until about 11.30.
Thursday 29 March
Another relaxed start! It was one of those mornings where you think "Why don't I feel worse than this?". We had an easy cruise down to the mooring by the bridge that takes the A38 bypass round Burton, from where it's a short walk to Morrisons supermarket.
After shopping, we set off straight away, arriving just before lunchtime at the Shobnall mooring by Marston's Brewery, the nearest approach to the centre of Burton.
After lunch we made a successful shopping trek into Burton, so that I could buy Sheila her wedding anniversary present, a pair of binoculars, and some boots and other stuff. (The anniversary isn't actually until July - we just seem to be well ahead of ourselves this year)
Back to the boat for a cup of tea and a chance to relax after all the gadding about. I felt sufficiently recovered by late afternoon to catch up with this blog, and to cook a chicken tagine for dinner.
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