WHILST stoppages in the cruising season are inevitably unwelcome, there is a more complex consideration, writes Mike Todd. It is increasingly the case that maintenance organisations, seeking to minimise overall cost and therefore improve the general quality, have to take into account that the optimum is to use both people and capital assets as uniformly as possible throughout the year. As many have railed against, equipment standing idle is wasted cost.
Helps to reduce costs
Equally, in today's society which finds zero hours contracts unwelcome, using skilled staff as uniformly as possible also helps to reduce costs. Every time someone is taken on or stood down, there are particular costs. Of course, inventing work to prevent idle hands is not especially good either.
Yes, there may be ways of using staff (whether employed by CaRT or by contractors) in different ways across the seasons, this is not always possible nor is it likely to be the most cost effective. With today's expectations for training and safety, all-purpose lengthsmen (who probably never dealt with lock stoppages anyway) are not necessarily a sensible option. Many organisations face the same choices and CaRT is no different.
In-season stoppages
I therefore have welcomed the move by CaRT to find ways in which the on-going maintenance can be done more effectively and that sometimes this involves in-season stoppages as well as out of season. If this can be arranged, for example as sometimes is the case, that the work is done before 10 am, or even noon, then the impact on leisure boaters can be minimised. What is much worse is to have unplanned stoppages which inevitably take longer as the logistical and technical planning have to take place after the start of the stoppage.
This is just what happened at Bollington—which nearly trapped us. We were fortunately two bridges to the South, and would otherwise have been unable to fulfil a grand-parenting commitment last week—the route North was also closed at the crucial time.
More complex
I don't want to be faced with a 'Canal Closed' sign when cruising but at the same time I do recognise that the longer term considerations are more complex than a knee-jerk reaction to a stoppage sometimes fails to understand. The particular case of the Aston Flight seems to me to have been a good plan originally as it is one case where lesser used sections have nearby alternatives. It was only an unexpected closure that unpicked these benefits. Of course, if the Garrison closure had occurred at, say, the Minworth Flight, there would have not been any alternative option in the first place.