David Mack

We had friends who lived there in a small rural house accessed by a track through woodland. They had to chainsaw their way out!

I slept through it. But no electricity next morning, so my mains-powered radio wasn't working and I didn't hear the news. I walked to work in those days, and there were a lot of leaves and twigs and small branches on the ground, and the odd flattened fence panel in the gardens I walked past. It wasn't till I got to work I found out what had happened - a few locals like myself were in the office, all those who drove or trained in from further afield were stuck behind fallen trees etc.

A possibility government will do everything in its power to avoid. They have hived the canals off once, and made them Someone Else's Problem. They can distance themselves from the issues of decline, claiming that they are doing their bit by agreeing to the further tranche of government funding. Despite the moans on here and elsewhere, the situation can be allowed to continue for some time yet before sky actually falls in, and if it ever looks like that might happen, government will come up with a smallish amount of money to punt the issue further into the long grass, rather than have CRT hand back the keys and leave government with the whole responsibility.

The old pump looks to be fitted for manual priming, just that the actual lever has been removed (or maybe it was originally supplied without one). As Tony says, it will help with bleeding the system when you refit everything, or indeed after any time you run out of diesel. Otherwise you can just ignore it.

Or your local authority's Conservation Officer. Usually contactable via the Planning department.

I have two routers at home as the stone walls in this house seem to block the WiFi signal. The printer sits about midway between the two routers, and sometimes connects to one, sometimes to the other. A bit of a pain as when the laptop you are printing from is connected to the other router you can't print, and you don't know about it until you try.

An interesting point. The CRT website says they work with film and TV production companies etc. then goes on to refer to applications for filming and so on. But nowhere does it say that filming and photography on their property is not permitted without permission. Clearly huge numbers of amateurs - boaters, walkers, fishermen etc. take photographs and phone video on CRT property. And there is no clear dividing line between those who do so for purely personal interest, or to upload to social media where they may or not make some money from advertising or paid subscribers, through to people selling photographs or items containing photographs for purely commercial purposes. And somewhere in the middle of that lot are the YouTube vloggers, few of whom I imagine have any sort of formal permission to film. CRT can't police most of these users, they don't have the resources to do so and any such attempt would be a public relations disaster. Hence presumably the 'fudge' of just implying that permission is needed and only invoking the process when full commercial activity is involved.

I suspect some are not there. Belfast has similar catches; some are missing altogether and some have been replaced by pieces of wood of similar shape, bolted to the window. I have it in mind to make new aluminium ones from box section as you have suggested (but possibly bolted rather than rivetted).

Yes. Three of them. He said he stopped hammering at that point so they could be patched over if the boat needed to be refloated before the major work necessary was done. Since complete rebottomming was always in prospect and the boat was out of the water on land rather than in drydock, I was not unduly bothered by the holes, just his attitude in thinking I would walk away from the boat so he could make money out of it, and then buggering off without a word when I didn't take him up on his "offer".

Since the feeder is on embankment here, I suspect the cycleway is at a lower level, and the embankment has just been bulldozed through. Would have been nicer to have constructed a small aqueduct!

When Belfast was out of the water a few years ago I booked a survey. Surveyor turned up and started taking hull thickness readings on a regular grid, chalking the results on the hull side. I left him to it and went to have a cup of tea. A while later he poked his head around the door and said he had put his hammer through the bottom in three places - disappointing but not unexpected since I knew that it was the 80-odd year old original and very rusty and pitted. He then suggested he could take the boat off my hands to save me the responsibility of dealing with it. I said I would think on it, and he went back to complete the survey (or so I thought). 15 minutes later I saw his van driving out of the yard. I never heard from him again, never got a survey report or a bill. And the boatyard crossed one surveyor off their list of potential recommendations. I'm not going to name and shame. He was recommended by someone I and the boatyard trusted. I have never seen him recommended on here (although I have seen his name on a survey report someone posted here asking for comment).

I remember Tim Leech complaining that BW had painted his house black and white some time during the 60s or 70s, and the the house had then been listed. As a result he wasn't allowed to repaint the house a red ochre colour, despite plenty of evidence that this was how it had been for most of the previous 200-odd years, since it would be a change from its condition when it was listed.

Disappointing that it has been cut, but it has been out of use for years. I presume it is cheaper to pump water up from the Birmingham level to the Wolverhampton level or into Rotton Park Reservoir than it is to maintain the feeder. But Act of Parliament to abandon it? Surely not since, firstly it never was a navigable waterway, and secondly as under the '68 Transport Act it was not listed as a Commercial or Cruising waterway, if it is a waterway, then it is a Remainder waterway which BW/CRT can deal with in the most cost effective manner, which they appear to have done. Sustrans are not responsible for cutting it, even if they are involved with the cycleway project. The work has most likely been funded by the local authority and carried out with the agreement of CRT (as landowner). So it is to these two organisations that your ire should be directed.

Is there any evidence that Parry has been pushed by the CRT board or anybody else? He has been CEO for 12 years - quite a long tenure by any standards, he is approaching 60, an age when many people with the means to do so look to retirement. He has seen through renegotiation of the DEFRA support - yes, not at the level he wanted, but the deal is done and fixed for the foreseeable future. We have a new government in place with a sufficient majority to see them secure for another 5 years. It's the ideal time personally for Parry to step down, and with a stable funding and political background for the organisation, a good time for a new person to take the helm.