Standedge - Damian taking the MIck?

[Midnight]

From Damian's July Boater's Update
"So, if you’ve ummed and ahhed about ‘doing’ Standedge, now’s the time – it’s never been safer!"

Safety hasn't been a concern but many boaters would love to do it. Apart from the limited number of boats allowed each week, the HNC is now so unreliable you have a better chance of winning the a bingo game as you have getting across in one go. If C&RT want more boaters to use it, allow more boats and maintain the locks! 
#Richard Parry - No joined up thinking.

[PeterScott]

Good news:

Joined friends for the day yesterday Dukinfield to Uppermill. No problems beyond an unmoored boat that needed remooring. Passed a couple of moving boats and followed another up a few locks. Planned to Diggle overnight tonight, for a Standedge booking afternoon Monday. Booked through Marsden locks Tuesday morning and Lock 1E on Thursday morning. Watch 'Tonic' hereabouts for more daily reports 🙂

 

And The Other Sort:

Yes, C&RT just don't get-it: one boat per day on three days-per-week (as the bookings are set for the Autumn - seems to be two at the mo') and with the Huddersfield 1E nastiness - is just too restrictive for boaters to treat HNC as a proper through route. One of those two boats, who had done Dukinfield to Uppermill and back, muttered "never again" as they passed. ...

Edited July 14 by PeterScott
spilling

[MtB]

1 hour ago, PeterScott said:

Good news:

Joined friends for the day yesterday Dukinfield to Uppermill. No problems beyond an unmoored boat that needed remooring. Passed a couple of moving boats and followed another up a few locks. Planned to Diggle overnight tonight, for a Standedge booking afternoon Monday. Booked through Marsden locks Tuesday morning and Lock 1E on Thursday morning. Watch 'Tonic' hereabouts for more daily reports 🙂

 

And The Other Sort:

Yes, C&RT just don't get-it: one boat per day on three days-per-week (as the bookings are set for the Autumn - seems to be two at the mo') and with the Huddersfield 1E nastiness - is just too restrictive for boaters to treat HNC as a proper through route. One of those two boats, who had done Dukinfield to Uppermill and back, muttered "never again" as they passed. ...

 

 

Hey how did you do that post layout, with text wrapping around the photo?! 

 

 

[Jon57]

59 minutes ago, PeterScott said:

Good news:

Joined friends for the day yesterday Dukinfield to Uppermill. No problems beyond an unmoored boat that needed remooring. Passed a couple of moving boats and followed another up a few locks. Planned to Diggle overnight tonight, for a Standedge booking afternoon Monday. Booked through Marsden locks Tuesday morning and Lock 1E on Thursday morning. Watch 'Tonic' hereabouts for more daily reports 🙂

 

And The Other Sort:

Yes, C&RT just don't get-it: one boat per day on three days-per-week (as the bookings are set for the Autumn - seems to be two at the mo') and with the Huddersfield 1E nastiness - is just too restrictive for boaters to treat HNC as a proper through route. One of those two boats, who had done Dukinfield to Uppermill and back, muttered "never again" as they passed. ...

Helped a Norwegian female single hander on her own boat down from Marsden Wednesday. She was booked in for passage through lock 1e. Thursday. Due to the stoppages on lock 6e was told by a crt employee that was in charge of volunteers that the would get us and another boat through which was held up on Friday. Walked down on Thursday morning to the 6e lock and there was a tree down. As I got to 6e 3 crt guys were putting more stop planks in to fill the canal. I informed them about the tree and they said they would get the emergency tree guy's in. Crt fitted more stop planks Thursday tea time to fill the canal. Friday morning no water running down from golcar as the pump had been turned off (allegedly by kids🤣) they turned it back on. But with no pump running it was not filling over night. Spoke to crt guy's about the tree they said it would probably take 2 to 3 hours to clear. 🤣🤣  When the tree guys arrived the pound was navigable just. Took them all of 20min to clear the navigation. If I had been on my own boat I could have cleared it myself. When asked if we could get passage through lock 1e they said they need 3 guys (which is what was already at lock 6e) and they knock off at 4 it was not possible.😡 We would have to call the emergency number. 😡 We arrived just after 4pm. Not a soul their. Rang crt they said they would contact there guy in charge of volunteers. Got a message saying Saturday morning 10am. At this point I left my friend thinking she would be OK for the services on Saturday. Come Saturday 10 am no show. Friend and the other boat behind which had also been promised passage rang crt Facebook twatter etc. Still no joy as I post this now.😡 She's never in all her boating been told so many lies in her words than this lot up north (she's Midlands based) it's just a joke that the stop planks are their to restrict you to certain day's passage. But when things go wrong they don't care to go out of their way to make life better by water. (there was plenty coming down by the way) I bet she's still there on Monday as the canal is run by volunteers so nobody from crt available as they are all busy waiting to knock off at 4pm eating their sandwiches. Rant over 

[MtB]

Possibly doing it to gather a case for closing the canal. 

 

Rhymes with the way an investor buys a thriving pub then runs it really badly to force the business to fail. Then closes it to turn it into residential. 

[Jon57]

7 minutes ago, MtB said:

Possibly doing it to gather a case for closing the canal. 

 

Rhymes with the way an investor buys a thriving pub then runs it really badly to force the business to fail. Then closes it to turn it into residential. 

Most of the locks are fine and work OK. The problem is lock landings and shortage of water. If they want to sell it for a pound east side 😁I might be interested then charge people let's say £100 for canoes £50 for Paddleboarders. Fishing £1000 cycling £2000  canal boats on pay per mile traveled ( very little atm😡) 50pence per mile. Have to go now for my medication 😩

38 minutes ago, Jon57 said:

Helped a Norwegian female single hander on her own boat down from Marsden Wednesday. She was booked in for passage through lock 1e. Thursday. Due to the stoppages on lock 6e was told by a crt employee that was in charge of volunteers that the would get us and another boat through which was held up on Friday. Walked down on Thursday morning to the 6e lock and there was a tree down. As I got to 6e 3 crt guys were putting more stop planks in to fill the canal. I informed them about the tree and they said they would get the emergency tree guy's in. Crt fitted more stop planks Thursday tea time to fill the canal. Friday morning no water running down from golcar as the pump had been turned off (allegedly by kids🤣) they turned it back on. But with no pump running it was not filling over night. Spoke to crt guy's about the tree they said it would probably take 2 to 3 hours to clear. 🤣🤣  When the tree guys arrived the pound was navigable just. Took them all of 20min to clear the navigation. If I had been on my own boat I could have cleared it myself. When asked if we could get passage through lock 1e they said they need 3 guys (which is what was already at lock 6e) and they knock off at 4 it was not possible.😡 We would have to call the emergency number. 😡 We arrived just after 4pm. Not a soul their. Rang crt they said they would contact there guy in charge of volunteers. Got a message saying Saturday morning 10am. At this point I left my friend thinking she would be OK for the services on Saturday. Come Saturday 10 am no show. Friend and the other boat behind which had also been promised passage rang crt Facebook twatter etc. Still no joy as I post this now.😡 She's never in all her boating been told so many lies in her words than this lot up north (she's Midlands based) it's just a joke that the stop planks are their to restrict you to certain day's passage. But when things go wrong they don't care to go out of their way to make life better by water. (there was plenty coming down by the way) I bet she's still there on Monday as the canal is run by volunteers so nobody from crt available as they are all busy waiting to knock off at 4pm eating their sandwiches. Rant over 

Hi Kirstie, we understand you're unable to phone the customer service team which is why we did so on your behalf to see if they were aware of any  passage through the lock. Unfortunately our teams are unaware of any pre-booked passage for this weekend so we're unable to assist further. We're really sorry about this. Are you able to advise who promised you passage through the lock?

It was booked on the Thursday they should have made the effort to get through on the following day. The guy's on the ground said they would. The computer says no. No joined up communication. Always passing the buck back to the booking system run by volunteers not crt employees. Don't want to pay them overtime. Is a disgrace. 😡

[Midnight]

10 minutes ago, Jon57 said:

Most of the locks are fine and work OK. The problem is lock landings and shortage of water. If they want to sell it for a pound east side 😁I might be interested then charge people let's say £100 for canoes £50 for Paddleboarders. Fishing £1000 cycling £2000  canal boats on pay per mile traveled ( very little atm😡) 50pence per mile. Have to go now for my medication 😩

Hi Kirstie, we understand you're unable to phone the customer service team which is why we did so on your behalf to see if they were aware of any  passage through the lock. Unfortunately our teams are unaware of any pre-booked passage for this weekend so we're unable to assist further. We're really sorry about this. Are you able to advise who promised you passage through the lock?

It was booked on the Thursday they should have made the effort to get through on the following day. The guy's on the ground said they would. The computer says no. No joined up communication. Always passing the buck back to the booking system run by volunteers not crt employees. Don't want to pay them overtime. Is a disgrace. 😡

You need to tell Damian and Mr Parry, both lightweights.

[MtB]

11 minutes ago, Jon57 said:

The computer says no. No joined up communication. Always passing the buck back to the booking system run by volunteers not crt employees. Don't want to pay them overtime. Is a disgrace. 😡

 

 

It's the level of service one should expect given how little they charge for it. 

 

 

 

[Midnight]

2 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

 

It's the level of service one should expect given how little they charge for it. 

 

 

 

I wouldn't mind paying more but I think it would just go towards the usual non-essentials.

[Stroudwater1]

3 hours ago, PeterScott said:

lThe Other Sort:

Yes, C&RT just don't get-it: one boat per day on three days-per-week (as the bookings are set for the Autumn - seems to be two at the mo') and with the Huddersfield 1E nastiness - is just too restrictive for boaters to treat HNC as a proper through route. One of those two boats, who had done Dukinfield to Uppermill and back, muttered "never again" as they passed. ...

Why never again Dukinfield to New Mills? It’s not particularly difficult on that section other than the occasional tree down and so forth. New Mills area is lovely. Apart from goose poo Stalybridge isn’t too bad either.  
 

The only trouble we had was at the bottom of Diggle (pretty shallow there) the guillotine lock and some fabric on the prop in Huddersfield.

[PeterScott]

On 14/07/2024 at 11:10, MtB said:

Hey how did you do that post layout, with text wrapping around the photo?!

Created a topic under Technical & Account Support here lest it be useful to a wider audience 🙂

[Creaking Gate]

On 14/07/2024 at 12:29, Midnight said:

I wouldn't mind paying more but I think it would just go towards the usual non-essentials.

Sure you would, and ruin all those gotchas.   What would spend all you're time doing?!   

 

Here's a thought, why not volunteer and invoke change from inside - as you've succinctly said things are wanting and you seem to have the answers, so by volunteering you could make a difference - Show everyone including Mr Parry that all it takes is hard work & dedication. Here's the link https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/volunteer .

Edited July 19 by Creaking Gate

[Midnight]

5 hours ago, Creaking Gate said:

Sure you would, and ruin all those gotchas.   What would spend all you're time doing?!   

 

Here's a thought, why not volunteer and invoke change from inside - as you've succinctly said things are wanting and you seem to have the answers, so by volunteering you could make a difference - Show everyone including Mr Parry that all it takes is hard work & dedication. Here's the link https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/volunteer .

Get stuffed! 

[Creaking Gate]

That's not very nice is it....