I expect if its not wheelchair friendly its not going to be allowed so they have to build a pier of the same type as the other clipper piers but because of the low water issue the wheelchair suitable large boat will only operate 2 hours either side of HW. Its all so much shooting ourselves in the foot to be all inclusive rather than putting a quick and dirty solution in immediately which would suit 90% of the people and actually be more useful as well.
Where is Dido Harding when you need her?
Yes, but it would require the Royal Empathy Corps to deploy fast reaction units locally to avoid hurt feelings and the mobile NAAFI wagon needs a licence from the council to supply tea and wad for the sappers. More prosaically bulldozing an approach path on the south side might give the locals a fit of the vapours and the EIS for the 500 tonnes of ballast for building an approach ramp would take 6 months to write, but the Corps of the Royal Engineers could quite easily bridge the gap; pontoon bridge probably with a removable bit to let river traffic through.
And this is the problem with having multiple threads on the same topic.
The thread isn't about how tanks might cross. Why the great institution of thames watermen hasn't remembered what their job is is more the point. Lots of options for assisting people on foot and bike to cross are possible but people are still waiting. Apparently the watermen organisation is very wealthy, maybe they don't need our pennies any more.
I cannot help feeling that some sort of floating bridge with an opening section ought to be possible. It might not give better river access than the current situation but a fairly lightweight one could at least allow pedestrians and cyclists to cross. What's the Southampton Boat Show marina doing at the moment?
This type is well tested on a significantly more demanding river The Pontoon Bridges That Carry Millions at Kumbh Mela But I just despair at our lack of ingenuity and imagination. Nothing gets done, unless some corporation will make millions of course.
It's possible to do that; pontoon bridges would be quite impractical if it wasn't.
The Guild of Waterman & Lightermen is not a trading entity as such, certainly not as a boating company. However the contract has been won (as I understand it from the rumour mill) by a Waterman.
The history of the watermen includes them getting very upset when each new bridge was built taking their work away. But its taken them a year to wake up to seeing the work opportunity in one of those bridges being out of action? Seeing the steps by the bridge it seems likely that it was a site of a ferry crossing so it shouldn't need any new regulations just dig up some old paperwork.
Seems like they keep their hand in Apprentices - Watermen and Lightermen But I heard something recently that they own a significant amount of prime real estate in the city thanks to the compensation they got each time a bridge was built. Maybe they're worried they'd have to give some back if they start ferrying people again.
More than half of licenced Thames watermen and lightermen have families already in the business, often for many generations, and apprentice outsiders are tolerated through gritted teeth. (A unique situation perhaps? It seems to work anyway.)
When I was living aboard in docklands one of the BW employees got a job as a waterman of some sort and he mentioned he had a relative who had done it as though naturally that was what qualified him. It seems a very unapologetic closed shop. When I worked at Felixstowe docks in the 90s I learnt that the Jehovah witnesses have the ports admin side in some way, not just Felixstowe, and its practically essential to see the light if you want to get on. And then one of the kids I was at school with got an apprenticeship as a track engineer with the railways purely because of a relative working there, very good starting salary. I'd forgotten about all this normalised nepotism.
