The weir and the not so wonderful

Davenportibus Magna has no greater admirer than I.

Why? He gets in the water and drags out the reeds to improve the flow, no pen pusher he.

Your page 14 eulogy (November 20), however, contains a few blunders.

The Green Lane weir crowning glory is actually an expensive steel and concrete white elephant – the only thing it lifts being the fees of experts.

Pre-weir – June 2018 – the water level at York Stream southern confluence with Moor Cut was 22.22 metres above mean sea level.

Per the impoundment licence the weir crest is built to 22.0 metres, Since, in nine months, the water level has never reached the weir crest summit, the lifting is imaginary. Next, the eel pass part of the 8th wonder of the world weir system.

I submit a Nobel Prize nomination to the designers for vegetation entrapment preventing eels from swimming upstream.

Having cleared the thing daily for eight months, I praise Oldfield School kids for helping and indeed taking over when they see what’s involved.

Unlike my generation they don't mind handling slithery wet stuff we thought would cause diptheria.

Lastly, if readers get this far, the whole scheme to make navigable the Maidenhead loop happened through an office jobsworth noticing the map north of Maidenhead contains a load of channels.

The bottom of the map pointing south means downhill so, hey presto, bring the Thames into Maidenhead!

Municipal drains are laid to a British standard rate of fall to get rainwater and sewage to the treatment centre. Agricultural drains act as soakaways to prevent crops going rotten.

A consultation with a farmer would have saved millions.

MD GEARY Forlease Drive

Maidenhead