Bray and Boveney

[boatone]

Should we consider a specific campaign to seek improvements to Bray and Boveney locks?

Both are woefully small compared to other locks on the river, and the delays on fine summer weekends and Bank holidays are interminable. Over two hours at Boveney on one occasion this summer.

I seem to remember that some years ago there was a one-off hike in licence fees that was supposed to be specifically for improvements but nowt happened.

 

[Andrew_Fanner]

YES!

I wrote to EA earleir this year about Boveney, having been moored at Eton Boat House for a club trip and watched the ever growing queue of boats waiting to get through. When there are 20 or more boats milling about in the wier stream waiting then something is wrong. Its is not helped by the French trip boats taking up the whole lock on a regular basis. I wouldn't seek to stop that, but perhaps doubling a la Sunbury would be in order, there is space where the skiff bypass is located.

The keeper thinks its an issue as well, mostly because rude people think its his fault and bleat about it. I regard Boveney as the limit of a casual weekend trip because of the nuisance of potential waiting times.

 

[Chris_d]

I'm not really sure about this, I had to wait this August for an hour Boveney and Bray, but then got to Boulters which is twice the size and still waited an hour. Cookham was easy as everybody peeled off at Cliveden but waited 1.5hours at Marlow, next 2 locks are small but no problems, Hambledon huge but still had to hover outside for 30mins. The problem at Bray and Boveney is just that those stretches are very popular with loads of moorings and marinas between them.
But how much bigger should you make them, add 10m or 15m say and you get maybe 2 or 3 more boats in, not going to make much difference for say £1million of our money, spend £2/3 milion and you can have something like Romney lock a characterless small harbour.
I actualy like the locks the way they are, each one has a unique character which I think is part of the rivers historical past and should be preserved. The delays are generaly confined to weekends only, and actualy I enjoy queuing at locks surely nobody needs to get anywhere do they?

 

[Andrew_Fanner]

>>>
and actualy I enjoy queuing at locks surely nobody needs to get anywhere do they?
>>>

Ever been on a hireboat with "we must be back at base by Saturday morning" and "we have paid £1000 for this boat for a week so let's use the boat"? Been there and it can be an issue. Vast power locks are not the way forward but use of existing facilities could be bettered. How many people have waited at Sunbury when the other lock has been idle? Possible a poor example as Sunbury is big. Pairing at Boveney looks, to me as a lay person, to be at the very least worthy of formal consideration? A two hour wait at a lock is not that popular with my children but 30 minutes is not an issue.

BYW, do the river at night in company with someone who has the power key. It is magical.

 

[byron]

The quick answer to Lock queuing is to have busy locks running and manned from 8am until 9.30pm in season. This would spread movements out. A further way would be to allow users to pay a bit extra and have their own key, issued on the same basis as commercial users. One day's training on a lock, must put through anyone else that is travelling in the same direction, etc. etc.

 

[boatone]

People being people, the main busy periods will be during the main part of the day so earlier and later manning will probably not bring any real benefits.

One lock-keeper clearly explained to me how we ourselves contribute significantly to the delays by not being prompt and timely in entering and leaving the locks. Ten boats taking a minute or two longer to get into a lock can easily add ten minutes to a cycle.

Also, the lock at Boulters is huge compared to Bray and Boveney so takes significantly longer to fill and empty which explains why there can still be a queue there on busy weekends.

Electrification of locks to allow half power working out of hours is certainly an improvement but the power is only 'on' from 0700 to 2200 in summer. Mind you, the bright indvidual that realised just leaving the lock clocks set at 0600 to 2100 GMT would allow that extra hour in the evening at the cost of the first hour in the morning deserved to be promoted.
But why do they have to go off at all? why cant they be left on half power continuously outside manned hours?

I seem to remember there being an EA explanation that river residents deserved to have some period of not being 'disturbed' but that doesnt seem to stack up with trip boats being able to steam up and down with discos blaring until and beyond midnight.

I can't help feeling there are lots of good ideas that could be implemented to improve our use of the river, many of which would have zero or minimal cost implications but do require thinking 'outside the box'.

 

[Andrew_Fanner]

We need a representative of the EA to post/read here. The BSS office manage it and BW's Eugene Baston used to post actively in some canal groups and presumably someone still does.

Kim/Keith/Other YBW Person. How might some form of formal invitation to participate be sent, and acted on?