A thorny problem

I walked down the flight at Napton this morning. The only problem I had was that I forgot my walking boots! I soon picked up a thorny branch in the sole of my sandals.

Inconvenient you may think but not much of a problem. But there were actually loads of branches from the hedge battering that were strewn on the tow-path. The hedges looked nice and are sprouting beautifully and evenly but the tow-paths are a mess.

As fate would have it I met a BW man on a bike. He was not a lengthsman or a lock keeper any more. He is now a Data Collector. I asked him how he could ride a bike on paths like this. I certainly couldn't. He told me that his BW issue bike had solid tyres! Apparently these are available here on the internet.

So BW know about the problem. They can overcome their sloppy quality control on their hedge cutting contractors by expending on solid tyres. A pity they didn't inform the other cyclist I met today who now puts his old holed inner tubes back in as an additional layer between the new one and the tyre, or the man I met last Saturday who is now walking 20 miles a day pushing his bike and trailer from London to Birmingham because he cannot keep up with the puncture repairs.

If BW think the tow-path is a gym, they should take a bit more care to give us a surface we can safely walk, run or ride on.

Is this necessary?

The notice has been up about a week and all local moorers have received a letter telling us about the Canal Experience Days this week end.


This photo of the Banbury towpath moorings was taken at 2.30 today (15th May). Was is really necessary to empty the moorings and stop boaters enjoying Banbury last night? The absence of boats would indicate a negative answer. Is it necessary to sterilise 300 feet of mooring for two hire boats and a day boat? I wouldn't have thought so.

Come on British Waterways. Put boaters FIRST.

It's Official!

You may remember my moan about the BW workboats that clutter up the Banbury town centre when no-one would mind them mooring below the lock where leisure boaters feel vulnerable. (A Popular Place)



Well as you can see, BW have now made the mooring adjacent to Tooley's yard their official place of abode. Now they can charge any boat that moors here a charge and stick on one of their red stickers!


The Banbury Mooring Restriction Zone was ostensibly instigated to ensure that visitors could moor in the town centre for a reasonable time (48hr). Obviously BW do not think that leisure boaters should have priority above their work boat.

By the way, there is no vehicular access to this particular mooring. The BW workmen have to approach the canal and park BELOW the lock adjacent to the Facilities building. So why can't they designate a mooring there for themselves?

Robin Evan roadshow

I have just come back from the Customer Meeting at Hatton on the GU (Birmingham and Warwick Canal).

I was pleasantly surprised to be greeted with the offer of a coffee and bacon bap, an offer that could not be refused.

I was also pleasantly surprised to find that the CEO and Directors present were genuinely trying to listen to the views of the very varied 'customer' base. Representatives of boaters, restoration groups, local community groups , angling federations and many more were all given the time and opportunity to make their points.

I find it very hard to juggle three balls. I came away with the impression that BW are onto a loser with somebody somewhere whatever decision they make or policy they try to implement. However, the objectives were clear. To maintain the waterways as a national asset; to encourage their use by all sectors of the community; to provide minimum service standards to all customers.

I sincerely wish them well in their endeavours. They are the organisation on which we all depend for the future of our waterways and the continuation of boating as the pleasure we love.

All down to the weather?

Do you remember my post about the state of the towpaths?

Well I felt that as it hasn't improved over the past two weeks or so, I would drop British Waterways a line. I received this reply:

"VEGETATION MANAGEMENT ON THE OXFORD CANAL



Thank you for taking time to inform British Waterways of the overgrown vegetation at Spiceball Park and north of here. We are aware of the situation on the towpath with overgrown vegetation(exacerbated by the warm and wet conditions) and apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused you or family.

We are working closely with our new contractor Fountains to clear the vegetation as quickly as possible and are asking people to bear with us during this period. Additional staff have been allocated to deal with the backlog of work and British Waterways and Fountains are confident that once this has been dealt with the overall standard of vegetation management will exceed that of the previous contract.



Despite the extra staff resource we anticipate it will be at least 3 – 4 weeks before we see significant improvements between Banbury and Cropredy. We have put together a detailed recovery plan to manage the backlog and clear the towpaths of vegetation. Fountains have provided additional teams to focus on strimming the towpaths to get the grass down to a level where the core team can then establish the defined standard as detailed in the contract and another team to target mooring sites, locksides and selected destinations. If you would like to know when specific areas of towpath are to be cut back I would be happy to have Lee King, British Waterways Contracts Manager talk directly with you.

Once again thank you for bringing this to our attention and please accept our sincere apologies.



If you have any questions or require further information please give me a call on 01908 302552."

Maybe, some of you who cannot see the towpath from the canal or the canal from the towpath might like to give this number a call!

Walk it off!

"The canals are generally seen as a relaxing place to be, and a week’s boating holiday an ideal opportunity to chill out and leave the cares of the world behind you. However, what few people realise is that boating can boost your fitness levels, develop your arm muscles (lockwinding) and tone your legs (walking to the next lock)." Waterscape.com

However, how do you get that exercise when the towpath looks like this?

I have heard that BW have a policy to "rurally manage" some stretches of the towpath but this in is in Banbury Mooring Zone. It is also on the waymarked Banbury Fringe Circular Walk. Believe it or not there is a canal next to this path- it is on the left.

I wanted to go for a walk to exercise my replacement knee but at this point the towpath was impassable to me. The nettles are about 5 feet high and the cow parsley reaches up a good two feet taller.

"Rurally managed". Rarely managed I would say.

I spoke to the local BW patroling officer the other day. He was fed up with getting soaked by the excessive vegetation and he's paid for walking the towpaths.

It's Moved!

As I sat in the club eating my ham egg and chips today, I noticed the hopper and tug, that I pictured in my moaning post yesterday, passing the window.

I have no idea whether it was because of my post and e-mail to BW but they are gone now and another space is available in the town centre. Normality is now restored.

A Popular Place

Banbury is a popular place and today I had arrived back in town to have lunch with friends at GF club.

Normally, I would have stopped on my mooring and walked into town but today there was considerable congestion at Hardwick Lock that delayed us sufficiently to merit taking the boat on. We also needed those requisites of life that are provided by the local boatyard; a pump out, gas and diesel. They were shut for lunch when we arrived so we progressed under Tom Rolt bridge to discover that the town visitor moorings were full.

I did not intend to lock down and moor below the lock. We would then have to turn at Bankside and return and lock up again to return to the boatyard. We would miss our lunch date too.

The crew of Sylph saw my predicament. He said he would check with the captain but thought they were leaving in 5 minutes. I backed up, hovered and waited for them to go. They were true to their word and we moored beneath Tom Rolt bridge and went for lunch.

What really got me though was the reason the moorings were congested. You can see from the photo that British Waterways have taken no notice of what I wrote in this blog in July last year. Now however they have not just moored the workboat but a 70foot hopper as well!

I suppose they think they own the waterway. In essence we tax paying, license paying, mooring fee paying, boaters do along with the rest of the nation.

Come on BW. Moor these large floating objects where we leisure boaters do not want to moor.