Graham Davis

Why don't you stop argueing here, get on the phone to CaRT tomorrow and VOLUNTEER to take the course? Then and only then can you criticise it. But if you do decide to do that, please go with an open mind and be willing to listen and learn, instead of the closed attitude you appear to have here.

As I said, your lack of knowledge of the system outside your local lock is clouding your judgement. You may love "your lock" and "your Avon" but you obviously have no experience of anywhere else. Kids swim in locks, lakes, quarries and rivers all over the country and rarely get into trouble, just as drunk boaters use locks throughout the system occasionally and don't get into trouble. As a mere member of the public you are in no place to tell people what to do, in fact doing so is likely to get you into trouble, especially from a group of stroppy teenagers. Even as an official CaRT volunteer I suspect your instructions would be to stand back and let them get on with it FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY. If you want to "care about the community" then go and do the job properly, but volunteering with CaRT and doing their training.

Probably nothing at all would have happened. I'm afraid that it is your lack of knowledge of the rest of the network outside your one lock that is totally clouding your judgement. As has been siad numerous times, join the official volunteers with CaRT, get their training done, and perhaps get out a bit and see some more of the system, other than your very limited bit.

This site is normally very accurate about historical railways, and it doesn't show anything in the immediate area: http://www.RailMapOnline.com/UKIEMap.php?lat=52.34640&lng=-1.77930&zoom=14 As an aside the site also now has an excellent canal mapping section!

And when you fence it off how are the emergency services (or even a trained member of the public) going to get in to save them?

I suspect that is debateable legally. Why don't you just go down the offical CaRT Volunteering route, and stop all the petty semantics on here about "ownership" (post #77)? Doing it that way you get the backing of CaRT if anything ever went wrong. I've been boating on and off for 50 years and when I worked in and around Brum I would often park up lunchtimes near the canals and would help people through various locks, but the only thing I would do was to open and close gates, firstly because I didn't carry a windlass very often and secondly because opening paddles is one of the most dangerous areas of lock work and every boat wants it done differently. And sorry, but from some of your responses here I would be telling you "No thanks!"

And why should I be? I got that information from various Police web sites in relation to dash cam footage and it's use as Court evidence.

And none of them would produce video of adequate quality to be used in a prosecution.

I had several customers in the motor trade in that area, and a couple of them had wet cellars.

When I was working in that area I remember the number of companies who couldn't use their cellars because the water table had risen so much after the Custard Factory had closed, and I can remember the sound of the pumps in one of the back streets underneath the railway. I presume they are no longer running, then?

I presume there are no longer ground water pumps from the area around The Old Custard Factory in Digbeth, into the canals?

Then, as I said, you and I have a different opinion on the meaning of "range".

Then it suggests that we have a different opinion of what constitutes "range". For me, if my cat ranged for one mile around the house it would mean that it went on a journey of 1 mile, possibly in a circle, not 1 mile directly away from the house.

But that isn't "range" is it? Your response is somewhat simplistic, but not unexpected. Perhaps you need to read the "proposal" again. I would suggest that you could easily take a journey of 100 miles around Oldbury and still remain within a road journey time of 2 hours from Birmingham.

And your comment bears no relationship to the question I wanted an answer to.