Boater dissatisfied with complaint outcome
I DID finally get a reply to my Level Two complaint about the River Trent navigation problems.
The nub of it was a mealy-mouthed response blaming Covid for their problems.
I do not understand why they furloughed nearly all their staff who work on their own in the outdoors and do not understand why a navigation authority had no buoys available for the Trent, which regularly floods.
I do not understand why the scheduled dredging is every three years – is weather that predictable?
I will not continue to appeal to the Waterways Ombudsman as I feel CRT is unable to learn from mistakes.
In the reply referred to in Mr Faulkner’s letter, CRT national property development manager Cheryl BlountPowell concluded:
“It is probably fair to say that if we had not been in lockdown the trust would have been able to assess the extent of the sandbank sooner and the resulting marker buoys would therefore also have arrived and been installed sooner.
“However, given the facts of this case I am satisfied that the lock keepers gave sufficient and correct verbal advice to customers based on the information available to them at that time and a notice was also posted on the website for customers to view ahead of their journeys.
“Furthermore, any unplanned dredging requires approval and I cannot necessarily conclude that in a non-pandemic scenario, authorisation would have been given to enable these works to take place any sooner than they are currently programmed for.
“Despite the challenges facing the operational team it would appear to me that they did what they could under very difficult and challenging circumstances to warn boaters in person verbally as they made passage through the locks, supported by the notice on the website.
“The only available alternative would have been to close the navigation entirely – however it was not felt to be warranted as the navigation was not deemed to be unsafe.
“If you feel that your complaint has not been satisfactorily resolved and wish to take the matter further you are, of course, welcome to request consideration by the Waterway Ombudsman. You should do this within 12 months of receiving my response.”