Retirement with No Problem

0Moored Devizes, K & A Canal

In December the SundayMirror.co.uk reported the collapse of a weir on the Kennet and Avon Canal.. it was on land owned by singer Kate Bush, and the report said that she would have to pay £100,000 to get it fixed because it was on her land..

But now this has annoyed me somewhat tonight from the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust ….

“The latest news from British Waterways is that funds have been found within this year’s budget to start repair works as soon as manpower resources are available and the currently high water flows recede. Start date is currently thought to be third week of February. If work should continue into next financial year, money would be available from BW’s contingency funds, but the engineering Team at Gloucester will do their best to open the Canal before Easter.”

I am now wondering why British Waterways is forking out for this one. Kate Bush was first reported to have to foot the massive £100,000 bill to fix this weir, now (according to the report above) it seems BW are footing the bill. I wonder who was suppose to be maintaing it then? .. looks to me like it was under the maintenance of BW if they are now having to pay the bill.. Now that is an awful lot of money especially with the devastating cut of funding to British Waterways, see the link on the left “Save our Waterways”

So we will be a bit stuck on this canal until Easter.. and BW have said “will do their best to open it by Easter…” I have been reading one of the Ownership Forums.. one or two of their boats are based here at Devizes, and someone who has a part share in Stealaway, moored just near us, is thinking that the rest of the owners should think about hiring a crane to take the narrowboat out of the water at the weir, put it on a lorry and put it back in the canal on the Thames side of the weir!..

We have seen this canal is lacking badly in maintenance comparing to other canals on the system.. there is an awful lot of work to be done to improve the waterway.. I worry that it might not get as much tlc as it should.. after all, it isn’t the most popular of waterways being a sort of ‘dead end’ .. From the Thames to Bristol.. and not many brave to go out onto the Severn Estuary up to Gloucester.. so then Bristol back to the Thames…

Ummmmm remains to be seen then..

Lovely day today cheers us all, a bit of sunshine and everyone is happy.. I did a lot of chores aboard Mk1 today while Vic continued with the raised dinette on Mk2.. you can see now in this pic how it is coming together slowly.. on the far side the ‘box’ is done.. as you look on the far side, on the left is deep storage for the bedding for that area when we have visitors.. and on the right, shelves facing the passageway for my printer, scanner and other computer stuff all to hand…

On the nearside closest to the camera the back rest of the dinette will be slotted in either the front or back of the base.. and so making the seat available facing the table or to facing the saloon if you see what I mean. On the left under the seat is going to be a shelf facing the saloon, here will be a book case with enough room for putting coffee cups/foster cans.. and the like.. to the right will be an open area again accessible from the passageway for my A4 files etc.. Along the bottom, access to two boxes/drawers that will pull out to form a footrest for anyone sitting on the dinette in the ‘facing the saloon’ configuration. In the boxes and drawers will be stored all the pens, paper, stickers and odd bits and bobs that granddaughters tend to play with when visiiting. They can then all be shoved away very quickly if necessary!

It is very difficult to explain!!