NABO want us to support C&RT

[Tacet]

23 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

The reason we left the cut was its just getting to unreliable and harder and harder to operate with the 'bottom to close to the top' and the lock gates needing 2+ people to operate because they are unbalanced.

The gates get harder to close as one gets older

[Alan de Enfield]

I do accept that but I am, fortunately, still fit and fairly healthy.

 

Still manage to carry 50kg of horse food across the yard so still have a bit of strength available.

[TheBiscuits]

9 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Still manage to carry 50kg of horse food across the yard so still have a bit of strength available.

 

How many trips?

[Alan de Enfield]

3 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

How many trips?

 

Very good !

[magnetman]

21 hours ago, David Mack said:

Whether a gate swings open or closed is dependent on the position of the upper and lower points about which it pivots. They are both fixed by the masonry of the lock construction, and there is little gate fitters can do to change the way a particular gate is balanced, without involving major works to the chamber masonry.

Most locks were built so that the upper pivot is further in the downstream direction, and further away from the middle of the lock (i.e. the lock walls slope slightly outwards). This means that gravity will hold a gate in the fully closed or fully open position, which is generally desirable, but the consequence is that in order to open or close a gate you first have to move it against gravity until you get to a 'high point' roughly midway between the open and closed positions. And this is in addition to the need to impart energy to get the gate from being stationary to being in motion.

Of course over time some lock walls have moved, meaning that the original balance may have changed.

But short of major rebuilding there is nothing that CRT can do to materially change the balance of a gate, nor do I think there has been any intention by BW or CRT to change gate balancing.

Any decrease in your ability to open gates single handed compared with 20-30 years ago probably has more do do with the fact that you are now 20-30 years older!

 

I don't think CRT replace the pots which the pintles in the bottom of the gates go into. 

 

It's a small iron pot with a round hole either leaded in or sometimes pinned with nails of the cill area is of timber. 

It's a basic plain bearing. Over time the hole becomes sort of oval and eventually the pot itself will split apart. 

 

BW did replace these when doing new gates but I have a suspicion that this is no longer done.

 

I have seen a CRT maintenance crew using a belt sander to alter the profile of the mitre in order to make the gates seal when the problem seemed to be a worn pot. 

[Pluto]

2 hours ago, magnetman said:

 

I don't think CRT replace the pots which the pintles in the bottom of the gates go into. 

 

It's a small iron pot with a round hole either leaded in or sometimes pinned with nails of the cill area is of timber. 

It's a basic plain bearing. Over time the hole becomes sort of oval and eventually the pot itself will split apart. 

 

BW did replace these when doing new gates but I have a suspicion that this is no longer done.

 

I have seen a CRT maintenance crew using a belt sander to alter the profile of the mitre in order to make the gates seal when the problem seemed to be a worn pot. 

They can be the other way around, with the pivot fitted to the sill, and the pot being in the bottom of the quoin post. It seems to vary by time and canal, so perhaps engineers had their own particular preference. A pot fitted into the sill is the much more popular solution.

[Tonka]

If it is true that Crt have done things like fiddle then it should be reported to the charity commission.  If you do not then you are as complicant as them and have no right to complain

[wandering snail]

46 minutes ago, Tonka said:

If it is true that Crt have done things like fiddle then it should be reported to the charity commission.  If you do not then you are as complicant as them and have no right to complain

It has been reported to the CC. So far, no action taken......

[Tonka]

3 minutes ago, wandering snail said:

It has been reported to the CC. So far, no action taken......

Did you report it or just hearsay it was reported.

[Midnight]

24 minutes ago, Tonka said:

Did you report it or just hearsay it was reported.

See the thread "Canal and River Trust no longer trustworthy?" Allan Richards has done a wonderful job but C&RT still not held to account

 

 

 

 

 

[Alan de Enfield]

29 minutes ago, Midnight said:

See the thread "Canal and River Trust no longer trustworthy?" Allan Richards has done a wonderful job but C&RT still not held to account

 

 

 

 

 

 

Relevant post :

 

Sent 11/5/2021 to Allan Leighton (chair), Richard Parry (chief exec) and "Customer Feedback" (Complaints email address)

Dear Canal & River Trust

I refer to my complaint sent to your chair, chief executive and "customer feedback" 30/4/2021 (see attached email).

As I have no reply or acknowledgement, I have now passed the complaint on to the Charity Commission as a reportable incident because it may cause -

- loss of the CRT's money or assets (due to breach of the Grant Agreement).
- harm to CRT's reputation.

I have also informed the Charity Commission that you have further falsified your approved annual report by changing the 'visitor satisfaction' score on pages 34 and 48. This can only be interpreted as an attempt to hide from Defra and the public a significant fall in the public benefit you are providing.

Regards

Allan Richards

[Allan(nb Albert)]

44 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Relevant post :

 

Sent 11/5/2021 to Allan Leighton (chair), Richard Parry (chief exec) and "Customer Feedback" (Complaints email address)

Dear Canal & River Trust

I refer to my complaint sent to your chair, chief executive and "customer feedback" 30/4/2021 (see attached email).

As I have no reply or acknowledgement, I have now passed the complaint on to the Charity Commission as a reportable incident because it may cause -

- loss of the CRT's money or assets (due to breach of the Grant Agreement).
- harm to CRT's reputation.

I have also informed the Charity Commission that you have further falsified your approved annual report by changing the 'visitor satisfaction' score on pages 34 and 48. This can only be interpreted as an attempt to hide from Defra and the public a significant fall in the public benefit you are providing.

Regards

Allan Richards

I hold two letters to the Charity Commission written by Tom Deards, legal & governance director, on behalf of the Board of Trustees. The first admits to changing the Board of Trustees approved annual report in respect of heritage data (to hide a fall in on condition of heritage assets). The second was prompted, by me informing CRT that they were not being entirly honest with the Charity Commission. It second letter added that CRT had also altered the 'visitor satisfaction' figure.

The letters name chief executive, Richard Parry, as the instigator and say that the changes took place with the knowledge of both CRT's chair, Allan Leighon and Deputy Chair, Jenny Abransky. Tom Deards, who filed the falsified version with the Charity Commission is not named. Neither are three other directors who were aware of what was going on.

In mitigation, the trustees claimed that CRT were trying to correct errors. However, an information request has found that the board never approved these changes before they were made or retrospectively.

Of course, all those executives and trustees had a duty to inform the board that its annual report was in the process of being falsified. They all had a duty to inform the Charity Commission after the falsification took place.

What happened was that a member of staff became aware but was too frightened to take the matter up via CRT's whistleblowing proceedure. Investigation showed that two out of three members of the committee that investigates 'whistleblowing' just happen to be involved in the falsification. The staff member came to me and asked me to investigate and take appropriate action.

The appropriate action is documented above. Take it up with the charity first and then the Charity Commission.

Allan Leighton will stand down in September, a year early. That will be shortly after government announces future funding for CRT's waterways.

[Alan de Enfield]

1 minute ago, Allan(nb Albert) said:

That will be shortly after government announces future funding for CRT's waterways.

 

Further funding, or, no funding - announcent in July '22

[Allan(nb Albert)]

1 hour ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Further funding, or, no funding - announcent in July '22

Yes - the four scenarios being considered post 2027 are 120%, 100%, 50% or 0% of current funding.