Peter Thornton
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Posts posted by Peter Thornton
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5 hours ago, Marshian said:
If the LA could discharge its statutory homelessness duty with a cardboard box, I'm sure they would. But they can't. They can, however, argue that the root cause of the liveaboards' homelessness is a CaRT maintenance issue. That's not turning CaRT into a housing authority; it's a housing authority holding CaRT responsible for homelessness due to canal disrepair
As someone who has worked in this field, the LA will have a duty to respond, and will do so. But it doesn't have the responsibility to provide free accommodation and most people will find relatives and friends to help out.
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Interesting article in the Sunday Times about the "Manchester Pusher". https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2018-03-11/news/spectre-of-manchester-pusher-lingers-as-76-fall-victim-to-death-trap-canals-q5rwvtph5
"It is a tale that has become familiar to the people of Manchester. Bodies are being found in the city’s canals at a startling rate. Research by The Sunday Times has identified 76 corpses discovered in the canals and waterways of Greater Manchester since 2007. The entire West Midlands, which includes the canal-rich city of Birmingham, recorded 17 bodies in canals between 2012-16. The same period in Manchester yielded 38."
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1 hour ago, furnessvale said:
Surely it would be better if everybody lived in Carlisle but the supermarket was built on the top of Shap.
We could all go out shopping (uphill), safe in the knowledge that even with flat batteries we could coast home?
George
I’m all for thar, as I live halfway between Kendal and Shap summit!
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Ref charging in the street: The latest development is wireless charging. You just park in the bay and this lines up a pad under the car with a charging pad under the tarmac. No wires, or connections.
Of course that’s a large financial commitment for someone and I do wonder if someone somewhere is doing the figures as to what it all means in term of ultimate demand and how many new cables locally will be needed along with new sub stations etc? I’m not encouraged by the Horlicks the UK is making over simply changing one wire over to another in order to bring fast fibre broadband to us all.
By the time Brexit is sorted (!) there will only be a few years left to work this all out ........
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You’ll be surprised how much expansion you’ll get. The previous advice is good, fill it, run it hard for several hours until it is overflowing then let it cool and mark the level a little below this.
if you are still topping up then you have a leak. A popular place for a leak is where the tank is connected to the engine.
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As to what boaters get for Council Tax (if they pay it) most of it goes into elderly Social Care. If you end up in a Council funded care home you will get through something North of £30,000 a year.
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We need to be realistic on this one. We are not going to be allowed to carry on polluting in residential areas. Either by running dirty diesel engines or burning wood and coal.
One of three things will probably happen:
1. A complete ban on burning any fuel but smokeless, anywhere.
2. A ban on burning fuel and running engines in residential areas.
3. A ban on burning fuel and running engines in areas where metered power is available
I think we need to be working towards 3.
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5 hours ago, KevMc said:
I heard somewhere that Mayor Khan has said that new building in London will not be granted planning permission if it has any parking spaces at all - bet he gets driven around in a nice motor though
Last time I saw him, he was on the tube!
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On 12/10/2017 at 11:23, Arthur Marshall said:
I decided I couldn't face the hassle. I had planned a trip on the L&L which would have meant coming back onto the Bridgewater within the 28 day period and that, combined with doing the Wigan flight solo twice and a knackered knee, convinced me not to bother, so I just went up to Lymm for a couple of days and then legged it to the Montgomery! Never saw anyone remotely interested in how long I'd been on the canal. I can understand anyone getting upset about it if their boat is their home and for work purposes they need to traverse the canal regularly, I suspect the rest of us will just either avoid it or work round it. I've still not heard of anyone actually being charged apart from gigoguy on this thread.
Just done a return trip on Bridgewater.As we spent less than 7 days in total I didn’t see any need to buy a licence, couldn’t actually work out how to and no-one appeared at any point to be interested.
We did have one strange experience when I took a photo of a boat with the same name as our granddaughter and was challenged by the owner as to why I had done this ( he ran after us for a hundred yards or so). Maybe an illustration of the tensions there?
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On 03/10/2017 at 15:33, cuthound said:
I thought the reciprocal arrangement was that Bridgewater Canal licenced boats could travel as far as Banbridge Junction (end of the Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire Union) without payment to CRT?
At least there used to be a sign there that said this was as far aso a BCC licenced boats could travel.
That sign was there on Wednesday. I’d never noticed it before.
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To be fair, I didn’t accuse the lady of being complacent, I was thinking of us ........
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2 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:
Mine was like that. It sank one Christmas when I had the flu and the automatic bilge pump failed (as did the next one when it was needed). I welded up the channel and raised the front deck above the waterline.
Ouch! Was it an ex Ownerships one?
How big a job was the conversion? I guess you would have had to remake your front doors and also provide new steps?
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2 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:
Many will remember a strange scheme by BW quite a few years ago to put 3 square bollards at everynarrow lock, and this is one of the more extreme examples of that all going very badly wrong!
They are very similar to these, but the Leeds Liverpool is very stingy with moorings and I can’t believe they’d give us a mile or so!
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1 minute ago, OldGoat said:
To stop idiots driving into the canal? It's quite a wide towpath.
Maybe, but wouldn’t there be a reflector on them, or perhaps a bar across the top?
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We were going down Bank Newton a week or so ago and the lock keeper was telling us about all the sinking there (2 in the last few weeks)
Then we get to the Gargrave locks and there is an ambulance there. A lady had tripped when alighting, bumpted her head and broken her shoulder. And on their first days hire I think.
its easy to become complacent .........
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Just past Leigh, (towards Wigan) on the Leeds Liverpool, there is a long row of stakes/piling all set back at a consistent distance from the bank and spaced consistently. They go on for about a mile and They are about 9” or so square.
Anyone know what they are?
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Having spent a week or so mopping up our bilge, this is very useful! Hadn’t considered condensation, or overful water tank.
we have another possibility, out front cockpit is below water level and drained by a channel to the rear bilge. (It’s an “S” series Pat Buckle Ownerships boat)
so that sounds like three separate sources of water!
and one other point, if the access hatch is at the back and to one side (as in our case) then the attitude of the boat matters.
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Went through Wigan today. There was a dodgy looking character on the towpath, looked like a drug dealer waiting for clients.
Saw a family walking group later, with him in the middle of it. Seems he had been waiting for them - just shows how easy it is to jump to conclusions when you get into this frame of mind!
our time on the Leeds Liverpool comes to an end tomorrow. It’s a lovely canal with great scenery and lots of interest. We’ll miss it all, except perhaps those big heavy locks .......
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Has anyone had problems around bridge 132, on the outskirts of Burnley?
We passed there a couple of weeks ago and saw something going on with some youths scuffling. On the way back a couple of days ago we came under rocket attack!
Luckily the youths concerned were too concerned with hiding from my camera to aim it properly.
Other than that we have had an uneventful trip through the “badlands” and would recommend the Leeds Liverpool to anyone wanting to venture North.
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Not sure whether it’s a Polar unit, but I think you’ve found the problem. It’s damp around there in the morning.
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It’s actually quite easy to convert a generator to LPG. There is a company called Edge Technology who specialise in this.
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Full disclosure - I’m a local politician ........
Politicians don’t actually go about trying to upset people (!) most problems come because of opposing forces i.e. you have to upset someone, it’s just deciding which group to choose.
I can’t see a ban on running engines in locks for example. There are safety concerns apart from anything else.
The big issue will be running engines to charge batteries, in residential areas. This has already been a problem in the past and, crucially, it’s a problem capable of being solved. For example, our local council has recently banned genearators in the market place, but only after installing electric points as an alternative.
There are a number of high profile town centre moorings where I can see this being the way forward.
I just hope that CRT is engaging in some dialogue about this.
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I think Diesel engines for propulsion will be ok, it’s sitting on a mooring, in a residential area, running engines to charge batteries that will be the problem.
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Whatever the current legislation, and political insults aside, anyone who thinks we will continue to be allowed to run old diesel engines in towns and cities and allowed to burn whatever we like in residential areas, clearly hasn’t been paying attention.
the most we can hope for is that CRT obtain some grant money to install electric hook ups.
Middlewich Branch breach - Shropshire Union
in General Boating
Posted
"a chaotic real world of non-homogeneity"
What a wonderful description of an average day in my life!