windyhollow
new user
Reged: 18/05/2007
Posts: 4
Loc: Berkshire
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Well done to the wives of the Thames Lock Keepers who went on BBC Radio Berks this morning to explain to listeners how it feels to have their homes ripped out from under them in the latest miserley attempt by the EA to plug the funding gap from the government and save money.
The EA Management insist that service to us Boaters' will remain unchanged and will, in fact, be improved during the busiest times of the summer because they plan to recruit more temporary staff - given that the pay for these positions is so appallingly poor, one wonders how they are proposing to accomplish this especially, as in recent years, they have been unable to fill all of the summer assistant positions until way, way into the season. Perhaps, they hope to attract some of the elderly "little helpers" that currently assist so kindly (and freely) at the National Trust. I'm sure I cannot be the only boat afloat to experience unmanned locks both in and out of the boating season - we do, after all, pay for an annual license (are we to expect a rebate) which entitles us to a reasonable amount of assisted passage through the locks. Another boaty friend told me that last week he was on the river and didn't see a lock keeper for six locks!!!
I feel certain other Boaters were as astonished as I to see that the EA, in their infinite wisdom, have chosen to unhouse four locks in a row below the point where the Jubilee River enters the Thames meaning that there will not be enough staff able to quickly respond for wier operations in an emergency out of hours. Good grief did they not have enough egg all over their faces with the fiasco of the 2003 floods. The only people to be consistently praised in last year's July flooding were the lock keepers with their help to stranded boaters, and their invaluable local knowledge. Heaven knows what will happen to the thousands of homes on the EA flood map without the locally placed lockkeepers. It's not even a year since the Prime Minister said more money must be put into flood defence and the first thing on the ground that we actually see is a reduction of lock keepers between September and May when historically all the flooding happens.
"NO MAN IS RICH ENOUGH TO BUY BACK HIS PAST".......Oscar Wilde
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No_Regrets
regular
Reged: 09/07/2007
Posts: 1389
Loc: Welwyn Garden City, Herts UK.
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Oh great.
Trained chimps all Summer then. 
Still, gets them out from behind the desks at the EA doesn't it?
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The scourge of Windsor, and notorious founder member of the 'Upper Thames Birchwood Massive' now outlawed by the EA and River pressure groups, currently planning a nice comfy retirement in the aft cabin of a Broom.
Now can anybody recommend any non-marking slippers?
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steve_clayton
regular
Reged: 22/05/2003
Posts: 2512
Loc: king; I did RAF training there
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Quote:
Well done to the wives of the Thames Lock Keepers who went on BBC Radio Berks this morning
I missed it -didn't know it was on.
If there are further planned discussions/broadcasts then please post information here.
Thanks (and welcome)
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Much work still remains to be done before I can announce my total failure to make any progress
www.seraph-sailing.com
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rr_123
regular
Reged: 22/08/2007
Posts: 583
Loc: Surrey
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Quote:
please post information here.
just looking to see what's on the TV right now, and on Channel 4 there's a programme called "Embarassing Bodies"
Here we go, I thought, a programme about the EA!
It isn't though, its about yuman bodies.
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"I ask myself who is the rich man; you with your wealth, your big house and your beautiful wife, or me, with... what I've got...
It's you, isn't it. should have thought about that a bit more."
Rimmer
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windyhollow
new user
Reged: 18/05/2007
Posts: 4
Loc: Berkshire
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You can listen online to BBC Radio Berkshire's morning show now until tomorrow morning's show starts - when it will be replaced. The Cookham Wife was on about 7.10am and the Marlow Relief Wife about 8.05am. Very bold ladies indeed - what lucky chaps those lock keepers are!!!
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Brayman
regular
Reged: 27/11/2006
Posts: 1344
Loc: Bucks
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I have a recording of both the ladies' interviews. They came across very well indeed.
If anyone would like it please PM me with your email adress and I'll gladly forward it.
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How come I am over the hill but I never made it to the top?
http://www.braycruiserclub.co.uk
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channelyacht
regular
Reged: 25/12/2007
Posts: 731
Loc: Hamble & Audierne
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Quote:
the Marlow Relief Wife
Can I get one of those? How do they coordinate with the full time wife?
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rickp
regular
Reged: 10/11/2002
Posts: 5446
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Looks like their will be a piece about this on BBC Breakfast News this morning at 8:20am....
Rick
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