Stoppage planning with Waterscape

[Chertsey]

On the Waterscape stoppages page it says:

 

Plan your cruising with our regularly updated listings of stoppages and restrictions.

 

Occasionally, canals, rivers and towpaths are closed for maintenance work. We list all stoppages on British Waterways and Environment Agency navigations as soon as they are notified to us, but emergency work may cause sudden closures.

 

So naturally I checked this page before we made our plans to black Warrior next week before heading back to Bill Fen.

 

I selected 'River Nene' and 'stoppages' and put in the dates 25th October to 10th November, and I got this result (which is what is still coming up as of this morning):

 

Stoppages Results

 

There are no stoppages reported at this time

 

Hooray. We can get the blacking done at Stretton, and get back to Bill Fen before any stoppages affect us (there are some on the canal system, but not until mid November). So Jim arranged to get Warrior craned out, and back in again a week later, and to hire a pressure washer, and to get tins of blacking, and we were all set to go up on Sunday, when yesterday I got an email from Lyn at Bill Fen asking has I seen the EA stoppage list for the Nene which she kindly attached, and it said this:

 

ENVIRONMENT AGENCY

 

ANGLIAN REGION

 

NAVIGATION CLOSURE NOTICE

 

Section 15 Anglian Water Authority Act 1977

 

RIVER NENE

 

DATE OF ISSUE 1 October 2009

 

LOCATION Various River Nene Locks (see below)

 

TYPE OF RESTRICTION Navigation Closure

 

DURATION Billing Monday 2/11/09 to Sunday 29/11/09

 

and so on....

 

This makes rather a big difference and looks like it will now mean a complete change of plan. Thanks to Lyn the information arrived just in time to stop us getting stuck.

 

So Waterscape claim to list all stoppages on BW and EA navigations as soon as they are notified to them, yet, on October 16th are still not showing stoppages announced by the EA on October 1st.

 

It would surely be better not to have stoppages search page on the website at all, than to have one promulgating misinformation.

 

(this also appears as today's blog post but I thought it should be raised here too.

Edited October 15, 2009 by WarriorWoman

[Naughty Cal]

I suppose thats buggered up your plans then?

 

Plan B

[Proper Job]

Hence PB's plaintive cry for help........

 

Link to topic

[denboy]

CWDF Towpath telegraph is a better way for finding out stoppages

[Richard Fairhurst]

It would surely be better not to have stoppages search page on the website at all, than to have one promulgating misinformation.

While not disagreeing with you here that the information is wrong and should be fixed, I think you're confusing "Waterscape is not the canonical source for EA stoppages" (which is correct) with "Waterscape is not the canonical source for any stoppages at all" (which isn't).

[Chertsey]

While not disagreeing with you here that the information is wrong and should be fixed, I think you're confusing "Waterscape is not the canonical source for EA stoppages" (which is correct) with "Waterscape is not the canonical source for any stoppages at all" (which isn't).

I don't think I'm confusing it.

I didn't actually expect it to give EA stoppages at all, until I saw that it claimed to.

It shouldn't claim to do something that it doesn't actually do. It would be far better if it said 'For EA waterways, visit the EA website'.

[Richard Fairhurst]

Ah, so when you say "It would surely be better not to have stoppages search page on the website at all" you mean "stoppages search page on the River Nene and other EA waterways".

 

When I was there - which was a long time ago - we listed EA stoppages fairly religiously; also the Bridgewater, the Broads (which always seemed to be the same railway bridge), and so on. It's a shame if this has slipped.

 

Have you contacted Waterscape about it?

[ditchcrawler]

I don't think I'm confusing it.

I didn't actually expect it to give EA stoppages at all, until I saw that it claimed to.

It shouldn't claim to do something that it doesn't actually do. It would be far better if it said 'For EA waterways, visit the EA website'.

They even give Broads stoppages. I would rather they just get their own house in order.

[Tim Lewis]

I don't think I'm confusing it.

I didn't actually expect it to give EA stoppages at all, until I saw that it claimed to.

It shouldn't claim to do something that it doesn't actually do. It would be far better if it said 'For EA waterways, visit the EA website'.

 

You will be glad to know that the Nene stoppages have now been posted on Wayerscape

 

Tim

[MoominPapa]

I note that what looks like the entire winter stoppage programme for the Nene came through on Waterscape at about 11.30 this morning. It looks like someone is listening.

 

 

MP.

 

Edited to say: Tim got there first: I-must-read-the-topic-to-the-end-before-posting.

Edited October 16, 2009 by MoominPapa