EnglishRose

Indeed. They also looked for newts too. After £2k + and no bats the irony was 2 days later I was in the kitchen in the middle of the day and a bat flew in through the kitchen window and took up residence in the corner of the room and refused to leave (took us ages to get the bu&&er out)

We are on the Cheshi Shropshire border (Shropshire Council). CRT were an absolute nightmare and objected to our initial plan and then when we changed it in line with what they wanted they still objected as it wasnt in keeping. It was a 70s bungalow and and is still a bungalow now, same render colur with little difference in appearance from the canal..... Shropshire Council ruled in our favour on both occasions (the initial plans and the revised plans). Ultimately the decision lies with the council and we had some great pre planning advice from them and great supporting statements from nearby neighbours. I did try and engage wirh someone from CRT initially but they wouldn't give any advice informally without PP application or paying them a fee. Be aware that even the slightest change is likely to result in some form of ecology survey if you are in a rural area. £1k later - No bats, ah but you're nxt to a canal and countryside and bats like water so there may be bats nearby so we want another bat survey - another £1k. Oh ducks my climb out of the canal into the garden whilst work is taking place so you need security fencing up to stop ducks and other wildlife getting in (forget the fact ducks can fly)!

After today's 8 hours of slurry tankers this is now the state of the bridge

As I thought. Will wait to see what CRT say to our neighbours. It will be interesting to see how they deal with it. Until the inevitable happens and there is some serious damage done to the bridge or a boater (it gets very busy March - October) I suspect nothing until it comes to who gad to pay for any repairs.

This is where it may become tricky. It's not clear who owns the lane and when we bought our house the solicitors could not determine who actually owns it! The bridge is CRT and the lane is a bridleway as shown on the council website. I've no idea if this means the council should do maintenance on the lane as its bridleway or not because they haven't touched it in the 6 years we have been here. To be honest it would be pointless doing any maintenance on it because the endless tractors would just churn up any gravel etc. This is the lane towards the farm having come over the canal bridge so as you can see the bridleway is in a pretty poor state. Note that the pic of this is an old disused railway bridge not a canal bridge.

England

Yes, with no success. The LA muat be sick of the farm as there are very frequent complaints about maize being planted blocking foothpath routes, signs being removed etc. They are frequent issues with planning at the main farm with retrospective planning being put in or rubbish applications with info lacking getting refused. The slurry spreading doesn't seem be an issue to anyone you mention and it happens very, very regularly. That looks interesting. Something I forgot to mention is when we applied for planning for our extension we had to have a heritage assessment on said bridge at a pretty hefty cost and were slapped with a 5 tonne weight limit so all materials had to be taken over in multiple trips in smaller loads (not that anyone would have noticed)! The irony!

It's CRT bridge on the Llangollen.

I'm curious to know if there has ever been a similar issue re CRT bridge weight limits. Bear with me it's a long one.... There is a canal bridge on the lane with access over it which leads to us, the property opposite (a cottage on the lock) and further down the lane fields owned by a nearby large commercial farm. Before you get over the bridge there are 4 cottages also on the lane. This lane is also a bridleway and footpath. The farm has alternative access to the fields and outbuildings but prefers to go over the canal bridge as its easier (quicker and shorter). The lane, especially in winter is a complete muddy mess mainly due to the fact that they shift extreme amounts of slurry from the commercial farm (over 2000 cows kept inside) to the fields. Now it doesn't bother us so much as we have a long drive from the lane and just accept it and and I'm from an agricultural background so I know they need to do what they do (although if significant damage to the bridge happened we would be stuck as its our only access). The neighbours the other side of the bridge are up in arms. I wouldn't say it's so much the crossing of the bridge alone (although they have cited it as an issue) but in addition that their houses are very close to the lane so tractors and slurry tankers going back and too for 9 hours a day quite regularly does their heads in (not to mention even larger agricultural vehicles for harvesting etc). To put it into context, one day it started at 6;10am and they were back and to up until turned 5pm. The neighbour logged at least 50 journeys over the bridge with full tankers (and then the same back). The bridge in the 5 years we have been here has got worse. There are cracks, huge potholes in it and chipped bricks where its being hit. I believe one of the neighbours has raised the issue with CRT sending video evidence months worth of logs of bridge use etc (bear in mind this has been an issue for years but has recently come to a head with an increase in agricultural use rather than them.using their alternative access) and CRT are finally looking into it with their legal team. The cynic in me says they probably won't do anything but surely a bridge designed for 7.5 tonne limit which is having this exceeded very regularly must be having some impact (I would say a tractor and full slurry tanker probably weighs about 15 tonne minimum). I presume at the time the weight limit was fine but with heavier farm vehicles etc The other thing is how the hell would a weight limit be legally enforced? I mean given there is only us, one other property and the farmers fields there isn't anyone else who requires access over it as such but unless someone is monitoring it all the time. Does anyone know if there has been similar issues on canal bridge weight and action taken to enforce it. I'm curious...... Thanks

It should be fine, we are only teeny tiny in every aspect so we are hoping to give it a go!

Thanks so much! Phew. Yep dry weather forecast so no issues there.

Heading to the Cauldon in a few days and are a little worried about the river section. Will we be ok in our small 26ft boat?

I managed to get it second hand although it's brand new in the packaging and it's never been installed I'm hoping to put it in later still expensive for what it is but fingers crossed.

I believe this is a compression fridge. I did read about absorption fridges on another post and that led me to realize why the cheaper ones were well, cheap! I guess there is a reason the Dometic Waeco ones are expensive! They seem to hold their money well, even second hand!

Has anyone got any experience of this fridge? We are on 12v and we are looking for a decent replacement and we have seen the cheaper alternatives on Amazon etc but know they aren't good for battery and we only have our domestic and starter and a solar panel so we want something decent that will last.

Yes it's a Vetus tank! All solved - it was nothing more than a huge air bubble. Palm under mixer tap opened full, turned pump on, left palm there for about 20 seconds. Lots of spitting and spluttering and hey presto - water.

Will it be ok running the pump with no water for 10 mins or so (hoping that it won't take that long). We were worried about damaging it so didn't leave it running longer than about 10-15 seconds

Ah I remember . . So we had a different tap last time we had an air lock and I ran the hot water one (engine heats hot water), put my palm of hand against tap and turned the cold on slowly. I'll try that tomorrow before going down the route of taking things apart (although last time we didn't have a mixer tap)! Access is no issue but let me try the other option first!

That might make sense. How to get rid of a big air bubble? I can recall we had an air bubble previously, though I can't remember how we got rid of it! Ah I remember . . So we had a different tap last time we had an air lock and I ran the hot water one (engine heats hot water), put my palm of hand against tap and turned the cold on slowly. I'll try that tomorrow before going down the route of taking things apart!

That leads to the pump. No idea but it had a recently fitted new water bladder when we bought it and we had all the receipts from the marina. It's worked fine previously until today! https://www.kapwing.com/videos/646934ff8cc3d6001f0b4f37 This is the sound the pump makes (edit just realized no sound 😕 on video, I'll redo it tomorrow). No evidence of any leak that we can see. Pipes run under seats and are easy accessible as all our storage is under the seats (no fixed bed) and we have had them all up and can't see any water. Just been out with torches and looked and felt all round bladder and no water we can see.

Pics attached. We are going to try and look into the issue tomorrow. The bladder is full.

That's it! Doesn't look half bad. His father in law made it.

Nothing from shower or kitchen tap (that's the only two options). Could it be an air lock? Sorry idiot question but what's a breather?

I can feel air from the tap - just no water!

Yep