Saturday 3 April 2010

It Pays to Complain

While on our travels around the BCN we travelled over the Walsall Canal which was not an enthralling experience. At the end of the day I emailed BW to pass on my thoughts and details of problems incurred.

Yesterday, probably not the best day (April Fools Day) to respond but we received the following from BW West Midlands.

“Thank you for contacting British Waterways, West Midlands Office.

I have spoken to the supervisor for the area and he has informed me of the following.

The Walsall Canal is plagued by fly tipping, we have a rubbish removal boat that cleans the canal every 6 weeks and removes large quantities of rubbish each time.  Unfortunately, as this canal is classed as “remainder canal” we only have a small amount of money that we can use for its maintenance unlike the rest of the canal network which is given higher priority and a bigger budget.

We are doing all that we can to maintain the canal with the money we have and we also have volunteers at the moment who are assisting with the maintenance and clearing up.

If any extra funding is available in the future then we will be able to do extra works in the area.

The supervisor will take note of your comments and do all we can to make improvements.”

So there you have it, straight from the horse’s mouth so to speak.

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