Canal Cuttings Sept 2024
Although the weather finally picked up for the start of the school holidays, there have still not been very many boats through. The situation is similar elsewhere, and some hire companies have half their fleets tied up, which is highly unusual, and a worry. Visitors come to the canals to see boats, and boater spend is important to the local economy.
Boater’s Survey
A boater satisfaction survey by Canal & River Trust has shown that many are unhappy with the state of the waterways, the primary concerns being vegetation and lack of maintenance. In the past regular maintenance was always ongoing, but now it seems they wait till things break, which disrupts boaters’ schedules and options, and sometimes cuts them off from their destination. It is visible to all that the vegetation is unchecked, and is often impeding navigation, and that in many places folks have no view from the towpath due to the high hedges.
Despite works to the locks down towards Leicester over the last few years to stop leaks, water is still regularly run down Foxton all night from the reservoir-fed summit level. There are no maintenance stoppages planned for the Leics. Line this winter.
On Monday 5 August a paddle at Foxton became faulty, and as a result several other paddles were wrongly opened, resulting in the Museum being flooded to a depth of 2 inches. Customers had to be speedily evacuated through the back yard and the water penetrated beneath displays and cabinets and seeped into the flagstone floor. The building had to be closed for several days (in the height of the tourist season) for industrial cleaning and de-humidification. The Museum runs on a shoestring, and this is a very unfortunate occurrence. A full report has gone to CRT.
Towpath Works
Works are being carried out on the towpath between the top lock and the road bridge. The crumbling surface was removed and the back-piles replaced (they tie the steel piling bank edge back into the ground). A new surface is to go down. £65,000 of Harborough District Council money was available for improvements for walkers and cyclists as part of the government ‘levelling up’ scheme.
The long-promised ANPR (automatic number-plate recognition) system finally went live on Monday 22 July. There are cameras in the top car park, at the top of the entrance road, at the bottom car park, and the permit-holders section. Although most of these arrangements allow people to pay for the time they have stayed, this is still a minimum of £3.50 for 4 hours at the bottom (£3 all day at the top). This discourages people who just want a short visit, walk, drink, whatever, especially in the winter, and has led to an increase of folk parking in the village. One change is that it is now free between 5.30pm and 11.30pm, although it will take time for people to get to know that. We are assured that less than 20 mins are also free. What is no longer free is parking for blue badge holders, which is causing some controversy. Fines for non-payers and over-stayers are automatically generated, and the car park warden is still employed to spot check.
Mary Matts
Gartree’s New Prison Update
