British Waterways Customer Services Standards

More cuts by Defra, I first saw on Andrew’s Grannybuttons site, the BBC running the story last week..

The Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is facing budget cuts of between £130m and £270m.

 

The prospective cutbacks come as the department faces bills for a series of countryside disasters such as bird flu, foot-and-mouth and bluetongue.

It is understood to be considering cuts across the board, for agencies such as the Environment Agency and British Waterways and various farming projects.

I am surprised to see such a long list of ‘to dos’ from BW in the new Customer Service Standards.  To be quite honest, I can’t see all this stuff happening.  Plus a lot of it, quite frankly, does not need to be done..

26. Locks are fitted with ladders. Two in wide locks -ideally at opposite third points.  One in narrow locks – idealy at the centre point.  The ladders have top hoops and are kept clean.

27. Narrow locks have three mooring points on the same side as the ladder.  Wide locks have three mooring points on either side.

For goodness sake, why on earth do we need three mooring points in a narrow lock? Boats never get tied up in narrow locks.. the engine is sufficient, if there were mooring points there may well be more accidents with boats being ‘hung up’ etc   I wonder how much that will cost.. There are very few locks with even one mooring point at the moment.

As far as ladders are concerned, just about all the ladders I have used on this canal are loose and dirty, I wonder if BW are going to have the resources to keep mending them let alone keep them clean!

33 Lock walkways and balance beams used as walkways have non slip services..

Oh my!  No wonder our licence fees are going up and up over the next three years, what is in this document must be the real reason!

Here it is in pdf, size is 36kb British Waterways Customer Services Standards 2008/9 Also now on the NABO site with a report on their recent AGM.

Deary me, I could pull this document to pieces, no doubt a lot will, and now I AM CROSS AGAIN!

Heh thats two nights in a row!