Dear Dean Davies (Customer Services, British Waterways West Midlands),
I’m writing to complain to you in the strongest possible terms about the lack of gritting along the towpath of the Farmer’s Bridge lock flight, Birmingham City Centre.
This morning, between the top lock and lock number seven (where I disembark) walking along it to work I slipped and fell over not once but four times; I was reduced to descending the lock ramps by squatting & sliding myself down with my hands behind me for balance. You can imagine I’m sure the dangers inherent in slipping on the ice next to a lock, especially if one fell into the frozen lock itself.
I appreciate that British Waterways can control neither the weather nor the temperature, and that there’s little you can do to ensure passage for boats when the canal itself freezes over. However, you can control the pedestrian environment, with the application of salt / grit to ensure key strategic pedestrian routes such as this are safe for the people who use them regularly; the nature of that section of towpath route is such that once one has started going that way you are pretty much committed, as leaving the towpath to take a different route isn’t so simple. Once I reached the normal pavement – which the council is responsible for – my passage was completely fine, so if the council manages to grit the pavement, how can British Waterways not manage to grit the city centre towpath ?
Fortunately neither myself nor my laptop and phone were damaged in my four falls due to British Waterways’ negligence in failing to make the towpath safe, however be assured that had anything been damaged, I would be holding you liable. In this age of no-win-no-fee personal accident law firms advertising on television, I urge you to arrange for the key strategic pedestrian routes in Birmingham to be gritted and made safe as soon as possible, before another member of the public has a more serious accident, and my British Waterways licence money has to be used to pay out on a hefty compensation claim rather than its proper use of paying for the maintenance of the network.
in Friendship,
Dean Davies has replied to my complaint thus:
Dear Mr Gray,
I was genuinely sorry to read about the problems you encountered on the Farmer’s Bridge Flight this morning.
Unfortunately British Waterways do not have the resources to carry out the work you suggest. The length of towpath we maintain means logistically it would be impossible to grit areas given the number of people we employ. Unlike the local authorities, our mandate does not extend to gritting paths in bad weather, and at short notice. Whilst I have every sympathy with the points you raised, I simply cannot meet those expectations. It would be remiss of me to make promises I cannot deliver.
The majority of BW’s towpaths have only permissive rights on them – which means we allow the public to use them, but can close them at any time. This is another subtle difference between the local authorities and BW.
Regards
Dean Davies
Waterway Manager
West Midlands
My response:
Dear Dean Davies,
I have to say, I am shocked by the total disregard you are exhibiting here for the safety of pedestrian waterways users – especially given the exhortation on your own website to “Take to the towpaths and enjoy a gloriously traffic-free journey to work – or find your own green shortcut through the centre and beat the crowds to the bars of Brindleyplace”.
Your response gives the impression that I am requesting the entire towpath network to be gritted – I am not, just the key strategic parts of the city centre where there is a lot of pedestrian traffic – this is a comparatively small amount of towpath to grit – at the very least gritting of the Farmer’s Bridge lock flight (with the addition of parts of the Ashted & Aston flights being the only city centre flights) on which there are the treacherous ramps to slide down; I am horrified that you cannot see the potential for loss of life of a pedestrian who might slip on the ice and fall into the lock itself, getting trapped under the ice there.
It would take no time at all for one of your operatives to go down from the Farmer’s Bridge lock-keeper’s cottage with a trolley full of grit; I am seriously unhappy with your response to my complaint – please advise me of an escalation procedure.
[...] and, *shudder*, what happens if a spider gets caught in the electrics. There’s campaigns, complaints and not forgetting plenty of beautiful scenery. Much of Britain is close to a canal and they are [...]
ironically, british waterways have posted on their own website an article about staying safe during the worst of the winter weather – http://www.waterscape.com/features-and-articles/features/top-tips-for-winter-boating