Allan(nb Albert)

Government rejected a revised CRT plan to incorporate EA waterways to last month.

From the1904 Bradshaw's guide:Kennet 74ft 0in x 14ft 0in x 3ft 6in average draft x 10ft air draft;Canal 73ft x 13ft 10in x 3ft 6in average draft x 8ft 10in air draft;Avon 75ft 0in x 16ft 0in x 3ft 6in average draft x 9ft air draft.

The reason for C&RT's willingness to blame vandals and boaters for stoppages lies in its "days lost to unscheduled closure Key Performance Indicator (KPI)". Over the years this has been changed such that it now excludes short stoppages and those C&RT considers to be outside its control such as vandalism and boater error. Some time back, I wrote a program that is able to calculate the number and duration of stoppages from C&RT's database. For its 2017/18 year C&RT gave a figure of 490 days lost. My program found over five times that number of days lost! Put another way, by labeling most stoppages as outside its control, C&RT managed to reduce the true figure by 80%.

With regard to VLK's, the annual recruitment drive was rather muted this year. I put this down to the reorganisation and redundancy programme that C&RT has been going through for over a year now. With regard to Friends - C&RT's aspiration was 100,000 Friends in its first ten years with charitable giving contributing £10m pa. I have no doubt that when C&RT publishes its 2018/19 Annual Report we will find that, once again, "Charitable Giving" continues to operate at a loss. There is a suggestion that, in future, C&RT will concentrate on "supporters" rather than "financial supporters" (i.e. Friends) in order to distance itself from its recruitment failure.

From C&RT's last annual report 2017/18 - My analysis of the same period using the stoppage database found 2482 lost days. The difference is because C&RT do not include emergency stoppages less than two days or anything which they deem to be beyond their control. Regarding the 'significant improvement since the Trust was created', the information on the stoppage database is incomplete in that records over a few years old are deleted. However, the information available suggests the opposite of what is claimed. Going back over C&RT's annual reports suggests that it changes how it records 'days lost' year on year in order to reduce the figures. I understand that C&RT has already admitted the it failed to meet its target for 2018/19 but have yet to see figures. The Middlewich breach will be excluded despite C&RT admitting that it failed to carry out recommendations from an inspection in 2010 which might have averted the breach.

Nigel, I know that this forum respects your knowledge of law relating to Inland Waterways. I PM'ed eracer a couple of days back suggesting that C&RT has a duty to provide information arising from the BW 1971 Act Section 18. As such the provision of such information was not discretionary as suggested in T's & C's. My questions are - Has this been repealed? If not can it be construed to mean all licence data rather than certificate registration?

Having won a court case on this motoring issue which potentially resulted in in other motorists being able to appeal, I would suggest that, in legal terms, owner and registered keeper are not the same. The difference is that the registered keeper is obliged to name the driver and will be held accountable if they fail to do so. The owner is only obliged to provide such information as they have available after making reasonable enquiries. However, the motoring analogy has little or anything to do with boating until such time similar case law is established. I would suggest that those interested in GDPR aspects read the British Waterways 1971 Act which might lead to them questioning C&RT's Terms and Conditions.

Lock 8 has never been closed as far as I am aware. Lock 20 has been closed for five months at least. I do not know if lock 8 had a blocked culvert as claimed in the stoppage notice or it is lock 20 that has a blocked culvert ... With regard to what is wrong with lock 20, only C&RT can say.

Lock 20 has been closed to navigation for at least five months with no stoppage notice. It is still shut. Lock 8 has always been open despite a recent C&RT stoppage notice suggesting otherwise. The works on the Northern Stratford took place before Christmas and works on the Southern Stratford are currently underway. The works at Dicks Lane (lock 25 and 26) should now have been completed. The reason you can no longer see the stoppage notice for Lock 8 is that it has been removed in the last couple of days without explanation! At face value, it would appear that C&RT issued the Lock 8 stoppage notice following Jessica Williams and 'Victor' writing about lock 20 in narrowboatworld - http://www.narrowboatworld.com/11239-a-prime-example A later narrowboatworld article suggested that C&RT was confusing lock 8 with lock 20 - http://www.narrowboatworld.com/11253-it-s-lock-20-not-lock-8-cart C&RT altered its lock 8 stoppage notice to remove its 'apology' which blamed the 'local team' (I assume they meant West Midlands Region). Later (probably yesterday or Thursday), it quietly removed the stoppage notice. The lock 8 stoppage notice no longer appears if you search the stoppage database but can be found here - https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/notice/14540/lock-8-north-stratford-canal (Notice the difference between this and the screenshot I posted earlier).

Seems to me that you have missed to point. Boater Sam is not alone in being ignored when asking perfectly reasonable questions. On a lighter note, according to C&RT, it is lock 8 that you can bypass not lock 20. The 'apology' has since been removed without explanation. 

It's a big deal because of the length of time it has been closed without official explanation or any stoppage notice.

It appears you are not the only one who has informal requests ignored - https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/closure_of_stratford_upon_avon_c

I found C&RT's press release regarding the reopening somewhat muted. It perhaps has something to do with a reluctance to provide a copy of a report relating to cause of the breach.

... or did lack of freeboard cause the overtopping? ... or low washwall? ... or the sandy soil? ... or was a blocked weir to blame? ... or the opposite bank collapsing due to badger activity? I am certain that several factors would have been involved. C&RT have twice refused to provide a post breach report that might shed some light claiming they are exempt from disclosure because they are incomplete. Edited to add - The reason C&RT are blaming vandalism is because of a Key Performance Indicator which records "lost days due to unplanned navigation closure". Recording "lost days" due to the Middlewich breach would mean that C&RT would fail this years target. Blaming the breach on vandalism means that it is outside C&RT's control and therefore does not count towards the target of less than 450 "lost days" in 2018/19. Last financial year C&RT considered more than 80% of "lost days" to be outside its control (490 vs 2482).

Simon Bamford, Asset Improvement Director told C&RT's board of trustees in September that the breech was due to overtopping. Thus Jim is correct. However, Richard Parry told the board it was due to vandalism at the same meeting ...