Huddersfield council looking for input

[Cheshire cat]

Towpath upgrades

 

Details here

[Hudds Lad]

Does this mean they've finally found the owner/responsible party for the unsafe wall that's had a large section of towpath closed since last January i wonder?

[Victor Vectis]

Oh dearie me.

 

What a fine example of corporate bollockspeak, for example:

Get ready for exciting transformations! and

We intend to enhance your travel experience and create vibrant, accessible spaces...

 

2.3 million quid to spend and not one mention of boats and/or boating.

 

< sighs deeply >

[Bacchus]

And as for the grammar...

 

"A picture of how a section of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal towpath looks like now"... "how the towpath looks" or "what the towpath looks like".

 

Anchors.

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

Have a go at the survey 

No mention of boats but more interested in your sexual orientation, disabilities and ethnicity 🤷‍♀️

[IanD]

1 hour ago, Victor Vectis said:

Oh dearie me.

 

What a fine example of corporate bollockspeak, for example:

Get ready for exciting transformations! and

We intend to enhance your travel experience and create vibrant, accessible spaces...

 

2.3 million quid to spend and not one mention of boats and/or boating.

 

< sighs deeply >

 

You do realise that this is because the improvements are to the towpath, and specifically to improve things for "walkers and wheelers"?

 

And that it's being done by the council (boaters are CARTs responsibility), funded by a government fund specifically aimed at getting more people taking exercise outdoors, not boaters?

 

Given that the only alternative is *not* spending the money to improve the towpath (because it can't be spent on boaters...), would you rather have the existing sh*tty towpath just so that walkers and cyclists didn't get any benefit from it?

 

Yes of course it would be better if more money was spent on canal maintenance for boaters, but this money can't be... 😞

 

56 minutes ago, beerbeerbeerbeerbeer said:

Have a go at the survey 

No mention of boats but more interested in your sexual orientation, disabilities and ethnicity 🤷‍♀️

 

No mention of boats because they're not the reason for the towpath improvements or the funding, perhaps?

 

Anything else you'd like to complain about, like unemployed one-legged black lesbian single mums taking housing away from the indigenous population? 😉

Edited January 30 by IanD

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

Towpath improvements here will, in turn, perhaps be helpful for boaters,

I remember there was a habit of pouring chippings onto the path which then ended up washed into the cut by the lock landings

the answer was to put more chippings down,

and on it went in a circle,

hence in some cases difficult/impossible to get the boat to the side,

so perhaps a new surface might have it advantage 🤷‍♀️

 

 

22 minutes ago, IanD said:

 

You do realise that this is because the improvements are to the towpath, and specifically to improve things for "walkers and wheelers"?

 

And that it's being done by the council (boaters are CARTs responsibility), funded by a government fund specifically aimed at getting more people taking exercise outdoors, not boaters?

 

Given that the only alternative is *not* spending the money to improve the towpath (because it can't be spent on boaters...), would you rather have the existing sh*tty towpath just so that walkers and cyclists didn't get any benefit from it?

 

Yes of course it would be better if more money was spent on canal maintenance for boaters, but this money can't be... 😞

 

 

No mention of boats because they're not the reason for the towpath improvements or the funding, perhaps?

 

Anything else you'd like to complain about, like unemployed one-legged black lesbian single mums taking housing away from the indigenous population? 😉

 

you really are an argumentative chap,

me me me me with you,

bored at work I presume?

or has the missus chucked you out for the day with no sandwiches again?

 

 

another thread down the pan,

 

Edited January 30 by beerbeerbeerbeerbeer

[IanD]

3 minutes ago, beerbeerbeerbeerbeer said:

[snip]

 

another thread down the pan,

 

 

Can't resist going full ad hominem, can you?

 

You're the one who brought up sexual orientation, disabilities and ethnicity for absolutely no reason, not me. Maybe you should take the log out of your own eye?

Edited January 30 by IanD

[Hudds Lad]

10 minutes ago, beerbeerbeerbeerbeer said:

I remember there was a habit of pouring chippings onto the path which then ended up washed into the cut by the lock landings

the answer was to put more chippings down,

and on it went in a circle,

hence in some cases difficult/impossible to get the boat to the side,

 

I'm sure i don't know what you mean  

 

Pic taken July 2018, i think since then that this is one of the locks they spent quite a few quid on laying stone sets on the lock approach towpath to mitigate this, the gaps between the sets were unfilled and are wide enough to nicely trap pram or similar sized wheel/tyre combos (my wide enduro tyres float over with no prob). Hopefully now filled by mother nature  

 

 

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

That was the year I was there too, I remember them laying stone sets,

and a lovely job CRT did,

Id have pint with them in the Silent Woman after work.

 

I never knew whether they got around to any more on the flight though

Edited January 30 by beerbeerbeerbeerbeer

[Jon57]

1 hour ago, beerbeerbeerbeerbeer said:

Have a go at the survey 

No mention of boats but more interested in your sexual orientation, disabilities and ethnicity 🤷‍♀️

What a load of bollards🤨

[Hudds Lad]

10 minutes ago, beerbeerbeerbeerbeer said:

That was the year I was there too, I remember them laying stone sets,

and a lovely job CRT did,

Id have pint with them in the Silent Woman after work.

 

I never knew whether they got around to any more on the flight though

Just the two or possibly three if memory serves (not been down for ages, got too busy with lockdown walkers). The real eroded ones, up near Marsden where the improvements didn't reach, never got touched  

 

I probably passed you and waved (full hand, or single digits if you were miserable )

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

12 minutes ago, Hudds Lad said:

I probably passed you and waved (full hand, or single digits if you were miserable )

I’m usually a cheery chappy, merrily on my way to or from a pub 

I had a mooring above Slaithwaite for a short while you may have seen me there. 
In the small pound above E28(?)or27(?). 
Not ideal place regards water level in such a short pound. 
But a stunning bit of countryside to be in, and a short walk in to the village. 

[IanD]

There certainly have been some pretty rubbish "improvements" to towpaths in the past, it seems often down to trying to cut corners and save money instead of doing the job properly which would probably end up cheaper in the long term. Welcome to the world of short-term cost-cutting by cash-strapped organisations, CART or councils... 😞

 

Meanwhile, since the proposal is to improve the HNC towpaths at no cost to CART or boaters -- and using funding money that can't be spent fixing broken locks and paddles -- surely this is something to be thankful for, no matter how it's being promoted? 😉

Edited January 30 by IanD

[Victor Vectis]

2 hours ago, IanD said:

 

You do realise that this is because the improvements are to the towpath, and specifically to improve things for "walkers and wheelers"?

 

And that it's being done by the council (boaters are CARTs responsibility), funded by a government fund specifically aimed at getting more people taking exercise outdoors, not boaters?

 

Yes. I am fully aware of this. Which is what has made me so cross.

 

2.3 million quid to turn the towpath into yet another cycle superhighway/dog walking path/maggot drowning venue.

 

What does it matter if the locks leak, the cut silts up or there isn't anywhere to moor a boat.

The cyclists/walkers/anglers will still have their water feature.

 

And, frankly, yes I would prefer a 'sh**ty towpath' but navigable canal over the proposed, ahem, 'exciting transformations!'

[IanD]

31 minutes ago, Victor Vectis said:

 

Yes. I am fully aware of this. Which is what has made me so cross.

 

2.3 million quid to turn the towpath into yet another cycle superhighway/dog walking path/maggot drowning venue.

 

What does it matter if the locks leak, the cut silts up or there isn't anywhere to moor a boat.

The cyclists/walkers/anglers will still have their water feature.

 

And, frankly, yes I would prefer a 'sh**ty towpath' but navigable canal over the proposed, ahem, 'exciting transformations!'

 

But you're missing the point -- this money is *not* available to make the canal better for navigation for boaters, that's CARTs job using their already-inadequate funding from DEFRA and elsewhere. It's money from the government via the council to improve the *towpaths* for everyone, boaters included. If you don't like this, blame the government, they're the ones who decide how funding money gets spent.

 

So in this case your choices are sh*tty canal and sh*tty towpath, or sh*tty canal and nicer towpath for everyone.

 

Saying that as a boater you'd rather have a sh*tty towpath so none of the non-boaters you hate so much gets a better one -- which seems to be what you want -- really *is* cutting your own nose off to spite your face, isn't it?

Edited January 30 by IanD

[Victor Vectis]

No.

[IanD]

1 minute ago, Victor Vectis said:

No.

 

Wow. So much hate for everyone who isn't a boater that you'd rather boaters were worse off so long as everyone else is too... 😞

[Victor Vectis]

No.

[IanD]

3 minutes ago, Victor Vectis said:

No.

Now I'm confused. Given that the grant money can't be used to fix the canals because the target beneficiary is millions of non-boaters not thousands of boaters, do you think it should be used to improve the towpath (free benefit for boaters!) or not?

Edited January 30 by IanD

[Guest]

3 hours ago, beerbeerbeerbeerbeer said:

Towpath improvements here will, in turn, perhaps be helpful for boaters,

I remember there was a habit of pouring chippings onto the path which then ended up washed into the cut by the lock landings

the answer was to put more chippings down,

and on it went in a circle,

hence in some cases difficult/impossible to get the boat to the side,

so perhaps a new surface might have it advantage 🤷‍♀️

 

 

 

you really are an argumentative chap,

me me me me with you,

bored at work I presume?

or has the missus chucked you out for the day with no sandwiches again?

 

 

another thread down the pan,

 

 

He just cannot help himself. And yet he just cannot stop himself accusing others of doing exactly what he does. Multiple times a day now.

 

 

[Victor Vectis]

13 minutes ago, IanD said:

Now I'm confused. Given that the grant money can't be used to fix the canals because the target beneficiary is millions of non-boaters not thousands of boaters, do you think it should be used to improve the towpath (free benefit for boaters!) or not?

 

< yawns >

[IanD]

1 minute ago, Victor Vectis said:

 

< yawns >

Come on, show that you've got the courage of your convictions instead of just ranting... 😉

[Guest]

Just now, Victor Vectis said:

 

< yawns >

 

You know he won't let it rest there don't you?

 

He'll be back again in a sec to have the last word.

 

To add Oh hang on he got in before me.

[dmr]

I know its really only council new speak, but the canal is a unique and treasured historic structure and needs careful repair and possibly thoughtful sympathetic enhancement whilst totally avoiding any sort of transformation.