Undoubtedly yes. While the sale of the houses will raise some money, it is a drop in the ocean compared to what the EA needs and a short term fix at best.
With the loss of their houses the lock keepers will expect a lot higher salary but the EA has no money to pay them, so we end up with fewer lock keepers.
Without lock keepers certain locks will be chaotic on busy days, lock keepers generally try to fill the lock (with boats) before working it, I have seen so called "experienced" boaters shut other boats out when there is clearly plenty of room left inside. Queues will be long and tempers will rise.
The keepers also spend (their own) time tending the lovely lockside gardens that are a feature of the waterway, a "9 to 5" bod who turns up for the day then goes home isn't going to care about the gardens, so we will end up with tarmac everywhere on "health and safety grounds".
Not to mention the various safety issues that have already been raised on this forum and as mentioned above, I do not believe it is appropriate to compare the Thames with the canal system or Medway.
We are having to face large license increases year upon year, yet the EA give little in return.
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