Ten adults and three children carried out a Gordon Brown-style (who?) deep clean of the towpath between Bradford lock and Limpley Stoke on Saturday 13th November. Mark Stephens, Manager of the Kennet and Avon Canal, took time out of his weekend to greet the towpath tidiers and was suitably impressed by the first Bradford on Avon Star Class work boat, built at Bradford Wharf in 2008.
We thought it would be useful to have the whole of this sorry tale, told in installments on this site in one place.
if you want to know what causes congestion along the Kennet and Avon, read on, if you want to know how dismissively the chief executive treats genuine concerns from a large portion of his customers, read on….
We received this this morning from one of our correspondents;
Just wanted to pass on the news that the Bradford on Avon Wharf has been sold/leased to another hire boat company “Oxford Boats”, at least that the latest update that BW gave Granny Mo. It certainly demonstrates BW’s bias towards marketing the canal as a tourist industry, and goes some way to undermine their argument in evicting local liveaboards that this end of the K&A is congested and overcrowded. Although it also explains why they’re evicting us.
Which gives a lie to Sally Ash’s statement that BW wanted to keep it as a boatyard, pisses all over B-o-A town’s council desire to keep a working presence, ‘working town’ – yeh? In your dreams.
And the last publicly available dry dock bites the dust.
I, for one, would like to say a big Thank You to Ben and Granny Mo and Richard before them for their wonderful efforts to keep this going for the community and a big Boo Hiss to BW for putting them out of business.
And if Oxfordshire Boats think they can make a profit with BW’s current policies…..
Or can we smell the sweet smell of corruption, backhanders and sweeteners?
What’s happened to the £250,000 estimate for repairs to the wharf walls, reputed to be in any lease offered to Ben?
Latest reports reveal that Oxfordshire Boats have no interest in keeping the dry dock open and are intending to moor 14 mostly day boats at the wharf, preventing winding and generally causing chaos and visually detracting from this much loved traditional location. They are also intending to open a chandlery. Though why anyone would buy anything other than emergency supplies from a canalside chandlery when the internet provides many alternative sources at much better prices.
O well, at the moment i find it difficult to find much sympathy for this company, likely to be the latest business driven out of business by British Waterways mis-management.