DEFRA announce funding for Canal and River Trust
- Thread starter boatone
- Start date
concerned
New member
I wonder what will happen to the lock keepers when the charity takes over ..
Some statement was made last year about how BW reckoned they could run the Thames with 5 roving lock staff.
40 more people on the dole by the sounds of things.
Volunteers taking their jobs. Good old 'big society'
Some statement was made last year about how BW reckoned they could run the Thames with 5 roving lock staff.
40 more people on the dole by the sounds of things.
Volunteers taking their jobs. Good old 'big society'
TrueBlue
Well-known member
[B said:
So you should be - the government is giving CART about half the funds that they give to BW, which implies that a lot of maintenance will stop - quite apart from anything else.
I don't understand / believe how the River water managemt function can run without a local presence, and I don't believe CART would make a contribution towards the lock keeping function.
Hopefully thinks may change in the two years before EA waters are considers for transfer.
It's a pity that EA have been prevented from making any comment....
concerned
New member
Apparently , the lock keepers have been instructed to start training Ops Delivery staff ( the guys who fix the weirs and locks ) to work the weirs.
No doubt when the handover happens the Ops Delivery guys will be roaming around in vans operating the weirs , while the lock keepers get their P45's.
Must be horrible to be a lock keeper , training the instrument of your own destruction.
No doubt when the handover happens the Ops Delivery guys will be roaming around in vans operating the weirs , while the lock keepers get their P45's.
Must be horrible to be a lock keeper , training the instrument of your own destruction.
CJL
Member
I suspect the staff are most likely to be re-trained to work in other depts rather let go.
CJL
boatone
Well-known member
Sounds to me as if the EA are damned, whatever they do ?
Lack of funding means they have had to reduce staff - by not filling vacancies which arise rather than by redundancies. Training the Ops guys to be able to assist when needed makes absolute sense.
However, that also means people can claim that this is all part of a hidden agenda to replace the lockies.
Where's the truth ? I have to confess I don't know and I doubt anyone else here knows either.
What I do know is that without new sources of funding - and a new commercial development manager, Mike Wheatley, has recently been appointed to get to grips with opportunities for that - either we pay more or the EA will be forced to deliver less.
apollo
...
Yeah you keep saying this, and I keep discussing with you that they should charge other river users more.
They should charge for :-
All boats on the river with no licence today!
Swimming Events
Henley Regatta
Fine any event which does not follow the EA instructions ie Regattas that occupy 3/4 of the river.... or ban them from having any further events.
...and as folks expect it of me......Charge the rowers more than tuppencehappeny a year they currently pay.
Then they will have the money......
Then they can do the job we expect them to do.
Runs for cover and waits for the excuses....
boatone
Well-known member
All issues which are being addressed - over 800 enforcement notices issued last year. Most paid up but the more difficult cases have to go through legal process that can take a year or more depending on difficulty. 9 more staff currently in training to be qualified for enforcement work.
EA are only legally entitled to charge for 'navigational' services. Can't just decide to charge someone for swimming in the river. Henley - all boats need licences and HRR pay accommodation charges for structures in river during the regatta etc Also pay for any direct involvement of EA patrols etc but EA can only recover actual costs.
Great idea - totally impractical to implement. Needs staff to police and enforce = more costs.
Agree entirely but there is a national (not just the Thames) agreement with British Rowing. I (TMBA) am constantly pressing EA to review this.
Even if all the above could be changed at a stroke the additional income would not be sufficient to replace reductions in government funding and to run the river the way we would like it.
Run for cover if you wish ..... but please don't accuse me of offering excuses for the EA - they are well able to do that for themselves.
I am simply telling it like it is ....and I have put considerable effort into researching and trying to understand the reality.
I have established the TMBA, met with and written to my MP, met with EA managers to discuss our issues and participated in meetings with other river users to try and ensure that we boaters get the best possible service within the resources available.
What have you done ?
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apollo
...
Well before they sack em all, might be useful to use them to get some money in...?
If they have sacked them all already - Then they have to speculate to accumulate.!! (Borrow it from DEFRA, with their accounting standards I am sure they could lose a few grand...)
Hire some new staff or use the ones being trained to chase licenses to bring the extra income in.
Other organisations are NOT paying their way and the money is NOT being collected.
Am I the only one that thinks this sounds a little "defeatist"?
FUNDING SOURCES ARE THERE, you just have to go and collect it!
(and I am not pointing this at you Tone but the boys in the Garden Centre uniforms...)
..in the last twenty odd years paid approx £15000 in registration fees.
Whilst the average rower paid £380...
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the_wanderer
New member
Thames:R I P.
Having boated on the canals for many years and experienced the general lack of maintenance (locks with notices on them stating that they are "scheduled for urgent repair" which have taken over six weeks to repair a single paddle) I am not impressed by having our river lumped in with the canals. The pot of funds will be seriously reduced anyway and in all probability funds will be diverted from the Thames to patch up the canals.
I have a feeling that we are not going to like the changes.
Regards.
Alan.
Having boated on the canals for many years and experienced the general lack of maintenance (locks with notices on them stating that they are "scheduled for urgent repair" which have taken over six weeks to repair a single paddle) I am not impressed by having our river lumped in with the canals. The pot of funds will be seriously reduced anyway and in all probability funds will be diverted from the Thames to patch up the canals.
I have a feeling that we are not going to like the changes.
Regards.
Alan.
