New water taps

boatone

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Rather than showing boaters to be an irresponsible lot, if you have a genuine issue with use of the water points, report your complaint to the EA at Enquiries_THM@environment-agency.gov.uk and provide detailed feedback of the issue.

This should include the nature of your complaint, date, time, location etc and any other information that may be useful in investigating the matter such as the length of time taken to fill tanks and waiting time etc. Photographs are also useful.

I have forwarded the video posted earlier to the appropriate people.
 

The Glassman

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Under normal circumstances (and almost invariably in fact), I'd agree with B1.
However, when the powers that be act in such a daft manner, without warning or consultation, this time I don't.
You only have to look at some of the installations to see a job done by DIY amateurs, with kit fresh from a B&Q store.
It cannot be beyond the wit of man - or even the EA to do a proper, rule-compliant system that will allow a full flow safely and robustly.
It's not even the old 'a camel is a horse designed by a committee' syndrome. It's just plain stupid.
What odds on these bodged-up bits of kit becoming the most vandalised items on the river?
 

Parabordi

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Under normal circumstances (and almost invariably in fact), I'd agree with B1.
However, when the powers that be act in such a daft manner, without warning or consultation, this time I don't.
You only have to look at some of the installations to see a job done by DIY amateurs, with kit fresh from a B&Q store.
It cannot be beyond the wit of man - or even the EA to do a proper, rule-compliant system that will allow a full flow safely and robustly.
It's not even the old 'a camel is a horse designed by a committee' syndrome. It's just plain stupid.
What odds on these bodged-up bits of kit becoming the most vandalised items on the river?
totally agree, another EA total balls up
 

Old Crusty

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'Tis the same, the 'ol' world over, it's the poor wot gets the blame.' In this case, poor boaters. Yesterday, some scrote stole the connector from the waterpoint only accessible by unlocking the tap flap with a BW key at Bradford on Avon lock.

The ingenious used a variety of gaffer, masking & adhesive tapes to secure a connection, none worked. We just happened to find a spare kicking around amongst the usual detritus you find in a lock store so the great unwashed could fill up.
 

Gibeltarik

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Like those Fittings are not going to go missing every five minutes ?
Please don't do that - it will give EA the same excuse as CRT - vandalism - and the underground stopcock will be turned off - and we will have no waterpoints at all. My cynical / realistic view is that is what they want. Ideally ALL lock water taps will now be made available to all boaters to use with their own hose.

Boatone suggests complaining on the Thames EA address. Please use the one on the back of last year's licence enquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk - that goes via the central offices and is counted against Thames complaint figures.
Remember - even if Boatone writes on behalf of ATYC - it is counted as only ONE complaint. All boaters need to complain individually to make an impact. If Boatone drafted a standard letter for you to adjust they will still compare them and try and group them into one complaint! We are all quick enough to pop onto the Forum - let's use that effort to write to enquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk and copy our text to this forum! Much more effective!
 

Gibeltarik

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Please don't do that - it will give EA the same excuse as CRT - vandalism - and the underground stopcock will be turned off - and we will have no waterpoints at all. My cynical / realistic view is that is what they want. Ideally ALL lock water taps will now be made available to all boaters to use with their own hose.

Boatone suggests complaining on the Thames EA address. Please use the one on the back of last year's licence enquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk - that goes via the central offices and is counted against Thames complaint figures.
Remember - even if Boatone writes on behalf of ATYC - it is counted as only ONE complaint. All boaters need to complain individually to make an impact. If Boatone drafted a standard letter for you to adjust they will still compare them and try and group them into one complaint! We are all quick enough to pop onto the Forum - let's use that effort to write to enquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk and copy our text to this forum! Much more effective!

And my text read:
Thank you for the notification of removing hoses from water points. It has caused much discussion on waterway Forums. Removing the hoses is in line with others actions but with the addition of a small bore tap and an NRV has reduced the available flow for all users resulting in queues and congestion at water-points.

The NRV is an inappropriate solution. I have attached the manufacturers datasheet.

At best it will allow 400 litres per hour - a typical narrowboat water tank is 350litres and a barge 1500 litres. Its design allows for a 600MM (not 6 metres!) hose and the filling point should be BELOW the valve - think pump-out or Elsan wash-down. Most narrowboats will have a filler about level with your fittings but well below a cruiser or barge fittings - resulting in even slower fill.

The original legislation does not appear to need any back-fill prevention device as the hose will be provided by the user and removed after use (current marina practice)

You quote the industry good practice guide which recommends a double check valve before the tap - as used by CRT - Appendix 3 and does not have the same restriction on flow.

I am surprised that we have ended up with such an unsatisfactory solution.

Suggest that the NRVs are removed and taps - at least doubled - to produce an acceptable flow.
 

Northern Star

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Sadly this is modern management as taught by the UNI's and it is follwed up by no response and the arrogance that we have made a decision and will stick to it regardless of the consequences.

This sadly started in the 90's when some of the USA IT IDIOTS came over to cream up on the financial side of things and post crash they ended up teaching grads to manage with the same mindset of the accountants.

This has now gone into politics so this is where we find ourselves so it is time to sadly ignore the early learning centres and adjust to map it all out.
 

Gibeltarik

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Sorry - but this achieves nothing - except keeping your feet dry.

It stops the spillage but doesn't improve the flow.
 

TrueBlue

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My understanding - and that goes back to the days whe lock staff regularly wore their No: 1s - was that the stand alone taps (of which there are many acattered around the locks) were there for filling (portable) containers only. Therefore the new valves are entirly appropriate.
However, what for description only I call the fire hydrant type, those large bore pipes and reels were intended for bulk supplies - are clearly not appropriate for todays larger boats.
There aren't many hyrdrant cabinets around, thus would it not be appropriate to reconder those for a better solution?
Being a cynic methinks there's someone in EA Thames that didn't understand boaters use of the equipment and bought a job lot (got a good price?) and made installation easier and cheaper?
 
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