New information re Cookham Lock hours and Upgrading work

[boatone]

Just received:

Cookham Lock opening times and restrictions – May and June

There is a fault with the public power system at Cookham Lock. While we are working to resolve this fault the lock will have restricted opening times. Therefore, we would advise you to plan your journey in order that you arrive during lock keeper’s hours of duty.

Hours of duty for May and June are 9am to 6pm. Lunch break: 1pm to 2pm. From Friday 29 April to Sunday 8 May, Cookham Lock will also be manned from 6pm to 8:30pm. After that we shall review whether the additional manning beyond 6pm will be continued apart from on Fridays to Sundays. If there is not a lock keeper present during these hours, they may be operating one of the weirs. In this instance please telephone 0800 80 70 60. The lock keeper will be diverted to the lock to allow passage.

Between the hours of 10pm and 7am the lock will be operable on hand wind.

From 7am to 9am and 8:30pm to 10pm Cookham Lock will not be operable at all and will therefore be closed during these hours.

Work to install the new system is planned to take place from Monday 16 May to Friday 3 June (weather permitting) without the need for formal lock closure. During the work, the lock will be open according to the above schedule.

We apologise for any inconvenience these opening time restrictions cause and thank you for your patience.

 

[rosssavage]

Excellent news B1 - thank you for all your time and effort that goes into all this stuff.

 

[Ramage]

Well done to all concerned!

 

[apollo]

Thanks to the lockeepers for sorting this out. They can teach their Mgt all about customer service.

 

[Chill]

Is public or hand wind available during the lunch break?

 

[capnfishy]

Err, no, neither. The public power is faulty, or is that Fawlty, Major?

 

[boatone]

I understand that quite a few Lockies collectively volunteered to work extra hours including weekends and rest days to make this possible - thanks guys !

The confirmation that the work to upgrade the system should be completed by early June is just what we needed to hear.

 

[Flynnbarr]

I understand that quite a few Lockies collectively volunteered to work extra hours including weekends and rest days to make this possible - thanks guys !

The confirmation that the work to upgrade the system should be completed by early June is just what we needed to hear.

Lions led by donkey's.

 

[blues-n-twos]

Good news all round :encouragement:

 

[TrueBlue]

Is public or hand wind available during the lunch break?

No - RTFM.....
Apart from the night time - it's only available if the lock is manned.

At lunch time - eat your own or moor up and walk to the pub in Cookham....

 

[TrueBlue]

Thanks to the lockeepers for sorting this out. They can teach their Mgt all about customer service.

Methinks it's as much - if not more - B1 having some strong words in the right quarters as the efforts of the lockies.
Let's not damp such efforts with faint praise or even attacking ( as others have done) what has been achieved.

 

[Margot]

Lions led by donkey's.

I suspect that's probably rather unfair. I would imagine the lockies responded to a call from the navigation team's management for volunteers, and will do rather well out of the overtime they'll be paid. But credit to them all the same.

 

[apollo]

I suspect that's probably rather unfair. I would imagine the lockies responded to a call from the navigation team's management for volunteers, and will do rather well out of the overtime they'll be paid. But credit to them all the same.

Nope it was the other way round and hence not at all unfair.

 

[Margot]

Nope it was the other way round and hence not at all unfair.

How do you know?

 

[apollo]

Straight from....

 

[Outinthedinghy]

Maybe Adam should at this point re-open his little lockside kiosk and get a chip fryer in there and a bacon griddle...

 

[DogsBody]

I understand that quite a few Lockies collectively volunteered to work extra hours including weekends and rest days to make this possible - thanks guys !

Thanks to all the lockies who volunteered to help out, I'm sure all us boaters in the area appreciate their efforts. If the people in the EA offices had the same attitude as the Lock Keepers, we wouldn't have nearly as much to complain about.

 

[boatone]

I suspect that's probably rather unfair. I would imagine the lockies responded to a call from the navigation team's management for volunteers,

Sorry, Margot, but I have good reason to believe your presumption is incorrect. As I understand it, the proposal came from a group of lock keepers who, aware of the concerns being expressed here and elsewhere, volunteered to work extra hours and rest days to help mitigate the problem until the new system is working.
Although I and others had been vigorously pursuing the matter I am pretty sure that it was the initiative of the lock keepers that resulted in the plan now in place.
However, I have no doubt that this will be reviewed based on evidence of use during this week and if there is little or no traffic on weekdays we can expect the extended hours only at weekends - so Use It or Lose It.

......and will do rather well out of the overtime they'll be paid. But credit to them all the same.

Certainly not enough to make me or many others here feel like giving up a valued day off.

Whatever the underlying reasons for the problems at Cookham at least this shows a co-operative approach to providing service to river users so lets just be thankful for that.

 

[Margot]

Sorry, Margot, but I have good reason to believe your presumption is incorrect. As I understand it, the proposal came from a group of lock keepers who, aware of the concerns being expressed here and elsewhere, volunteered to work extra hours and rest days to help mitigate the problem until the new system is working.
Although I and others had been vigorously pursuing the matter I am pretty sure that it was the initiative of the lock keepers that resulted in the plan now in place.
However, I have no doubt that this will be reviewed based on evidence of use during this week and if there is little or no traffic on weekdays we can expect the extended hours only at weekends - so Use It or Lose It.


Certainly not enough to make me or many others here feel like giving up a valued day off.

Whatever the underlying reasons for the problems at Cookham at least this shows a co-operative approach to providing service to river users so lets just be thankful for that.

Yes, I couldn't agree more. Well done to the local lock keepers for taking the initiative and well done to local management for approving their proposal.

I still feel the earlier 'lions led by donkeys' comment is unfair however. My view is that everyone in the EA's River Thames team - staff and management - is committed to providing us the best service they can under increasingly difficult circumstances.

We know that the budget the management team has to work has reduced significantly over recent years, meaning they have to make decisions that they know will not be welcomed by us, their customers. That doesn't make them 'donkeys'.

I'm sure the EA's Thames management team would dearly love to have more budget than they know what to do with. But those days are long gone, alas.

Even so, the service we get on the Thames is still far better than that on any other river I would say. And that's down to the collective effort of staff and management, surely, even if they don't see eye to eye all the time.

 

[apollo]