Molesey Lock Closure

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Andrew38

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I was taken by surprise to find out that, according to the gov.uk EA website, Molesey Lock is to close from this weekend for 4 months and that Teddington is closing until March (though I presume that is just ones side).

I would have thought that some notification on the lock itself would be appropriate to save people getting caught in the wrong place. Or is there a presumption that everyone regularly reads the EA government website. Or have I missed prominent notices elsewhere?
 
Even though the work is necessary and the EA are quite rightly investing in the infrastructure, a notice would result in many boaters quite rightly moaning to the staff about the ridiculous amount of time the lock will be closed for.
 
Rightly or wrongly methinks EA imagine that few boats will move out of season and there will be even fewer visitors.
There are notices (or used to be) posted in each lock office - but not a lot of use if tha's in Yorkshire.

If I go cruising out of season off the Thames I ALWAYS check the relevant navigation authority's website - seems the sensible thing to do??
 
The EA emails notices on a regular basis to anyone who is interested. Without searching through them, I believe that information on these closures went out to everyone some time ago.
 
The EA have just announced that the Molesey Lock closure will be extended to 1 March 2019 from the earlier date of 31 January. Dovetailing with works to the Sunbury Dry Dock is being cited as the reason.
 
FFS, how can they take so bloody long? That's £250 of licence fee when I can't use the non tidal (yes I know it's a tax to float and not a licence to cruise)
Marooned of Teddington
 
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Actionmat said:
FFS, how can they take so bloody long? That's £250 of licence fee when I can't use the non tidal (yes I know it's a tax to float and not a licence to cruise)
Marooned of Teddington
Click to expand...

Have you ever seen the work involved in refurbishing a lock and refitting new gates??
(a rhetorical question) - if not go and have a look...

Time was when EA had an open day when the public / boaters were invited to view and ask questions. That was in the days of Paul Power - but I've not heard of an offer since.

Yes, it's inconvenient - but only for a very few as there's little boat movement in the off season and even less in the winter. (Except for NBs - but 'we' don't talk about them, do we....)

You had plenty of notice, so you could have moved your boat - couldn't you.....
 
Where could i have moved it? To a marina for 5 months when I'm already paying for a mooring?
I use my boat all year, what's an off season?
There are hundreds of boats here, not a few, plus dozens of liveaboards who'll be emptying their toilets in the river until March 2019.
And no, I haven't seen a lock refurbished and find it unbelievable that it's going to take longer than it took me to build our last house.
 
.......it may also depend on exactly what they find as work progresses.
East Farleigh on the Medway was a classic case. A vital lock,similar to Molesely, which once shut, prevented access to the entire upper part of navigation.
Despite considerable efforts to gather info on what little suprises might be revealed under the chamber, the delay time and cost multiplied the further down they went.
These locks are tiny compared to Molesely .
Perhaps a result of the delayed mantainance caused by lack of funding.
Fortunately just about all the other works need to bring the Medway up to scratch has, in the last decade , been finished.
A definate change in the ethos of the EA regards who they are trying to get to enjoy the river.
The classic motorboater market is moribund, most upper Medway boats now merely floating sheds, with skippers who actually go anywhere choosing to moor below the lock.
New infrastructure improvements mean your far more likely to encounter rowers, kayakers, cyclists, fishermen and even mere walkers enjoying the river than boaters.
East Farleigh Lock
2017-01-31_-_East_Farleigh_Lock_Works.jpg

Photos here of the amount of work rebuilding Yalding Lock chamber.
http://www.allingtonlock.co.uk/hampstead.php


 
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Interesting pic, cheers. I'll be heading there for a look, it will be interesting to see what they're doing. There is certainly an abundance of rowers around here, but also plenty of moving boats(Or there was). I'm on mine all year and there is always a steady flow of MBs and passenger trip boats when I'm working on her. Certainly more boaters than anglers.
 
What a shanty town the area around the lock has become. Trotman on the Hampton Court side of the lock, on EA property with 2 slumboats, unable to access the pump out with his pee barge for the next 4 months. From the lock to the end of cigarette island is full of boats and I didn't see one licence between them. The only visible licence on one NB expired in 2011!

Between Molesey and Kingston, 32 boats on council land or EA moorings, only 3 were displaying 2018 licences. 3 boats on TVM operated moorings, all overstaying the 48hr limit, all unlicensed.
 
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Programme on R4 on Sunday morning "Open Country" about the burgeoning number of folks taking to the water with a narrowboat for a home.
To be fair it did try to inform the listening public about the hidden costs and downsides to living afloat.
However not one of the folks living aboard who were interviewed gave the slightest hint of being uphappy with their decision.
Seemed equally divided between those who wanted the lifestyle and those driven by economics.
Do not think we are about to see a decline in the numbers making the choice.
Time to accept reality and make provision for more narrowboats and finally accept the weekend gin palace hegemony on the gilded pond is over ?

*look it up. :)
 
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A marina berth is still cheaper than a double room in a house. They've got no excuse whatsoever for squatting, it's just a desire to live for free while everyone else works for am living. And as for the biggest problem, Mr Trotman, what should the council do with him? Give him a few hundred feet of town centre moorings with power and sewage connection so he can continue trading unhindered?

If this was France, the gin palace owners(as you put it)would be wearing yellow jackets.

Even if it was down to a lifestyle choice and all boats were actually moving, or permanently cruising(which they're not), what's speaks volumes is their unwillingness to but a licence or a pump out card.
 
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Wonder what the actual ratio between boats / narrowboats who both moor / visit the Thames is today.
If proper suitable long term moorings were provided wether by private or public companies perhaps this could solve the problem.
Suspect if you provided some decent quality mooring with pumpouts/power and security, our chum would be out of business tomorrow or better still why not put him in charge........ ?
Poacher turned gamekeeper.
 
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Actionmat said:
But the minority are in NBs. That shows lack of knowledge about the issue in this area.
Click to expand...

I agree, but suspect it's because the NBs cost more money to buy than the old heaps that are around.

What ever happened to the EA doing a purge? They towed two boats away from Kingston, when was that? September? Made some noise, and left the rest... I'm sure if the EA want some volunteers to assist in the operations, there'd be a fair few who would lend a hand FoC.

Anyone can make an 'enquiry' to the EA about the state of the boats on the river via enquiries_THM@environment-agency.gov.uk. I believe they are meant to respond within 48 hours, and did the last time I 'enquired' about a heap of shite on the river, but didn't finally follow up for 3 weeks to say they were moored on private land, which was BS. I led to believe there's also a new Waterways Officer called Vincent Hoar that you can email too in the format firstname.lastname@...

If you've the names of any boats, you can also check their registration status on the gov data portal: https://data.gov.uk/dataset/9baaf5b...74/boat-registration-boats-registered-by-year - follow the 'resource' link and you'll get an Excel file that can be searched - note there are worksheets per year.
 
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