Canal boat assault

Yobs pelt canal boat with stones - Rochdale Observer

An angry boat owner has condemned the actions of a group of yobs who stoned his boat as he was sailing near Clegg Hall on the Rochdale Canal.

... A spokesman for British Waterways told the [Rochdale] Observer that the incident was ‘regrettable’, and fortunately didn’t happen often.

... "If it does happen we advise boat owners to contact the police in the first instance as they can be on the scene much quicker than we can. Boat owners should then try to get to a safe mooring area."

This story from last weekend would have been timely if the [national] Observer article I promised last week had actually appeared.

I remember on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal back in 2003 being stoned by youths in Blackburn.  I was choleric with rage, and tried to photograph them, but they hovered out of camera-view and clearly threatened to return.

I phoned the police, who said they would try to come, but that they first wanted a postcode for the place, or at least a road. 

I could only give them a bridge number to begin with, and they said that was no good.  I had to go inside and find a map and work out the area, and eventually found the road. 

And then the lady on the 999 desk told me to wait there and the police will come eventually.  And I said I couldn't wait - wouldn't wait - in case the boys returned.   And she said 'well, I'm sorry but if you aren't prepared to wait there, we can't help you."

It was only then that I learned the emergency services didn't actually know the location of bridge numbers on the canals. 

Perhaps they do now.  But the last time I had trouble with yobs, in 2005 at Minworth Locks on the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal, the situation was much the same; police couldn't help me if I didn't stay put, and would only log the call.

In my desperation I let the yobs sit on the front of my boat as I lowered it through the locks.  They actually invited me to photograph them on my phone, which I did.  Only later did I notice the mocking use of a single finger.

(It wasn't the scorn that irritated me; it was the thought that a hearty young Englishman - the sort of energetic boy who 200 years ago should have frightened the Duke of Wellington - should have used only one finger, and not the traditional English two!)

It was this sort of situation, as I explained to the lady writing the [national] Observer article, that ought to be covered more in the national press. 

It would make a change to read about these things - stonings and vandalism and so forth - instead of the broader political issues of the waterways.   Which is why I encouraged the Observer lady to write her article. 

And it's why I'm glad that other bloggers were willing to offer their views - even if those views didn't see daylight.

Comments

[Maggie Exon]

When we had similar trouble in Birmingham last year, the police were great. The phone operator rang before they arrived to keep us posted as to where they were. They stayed on the boat while we moved it to a better mooring. I suspect it is just luck and whether there are available officers. But we did know the name of the nearest street.

[Chris]

Andrew you should have asked the police if they could have put a firearms officer on the line as you were having trouble releasing the safety catch of the Smith and Wesson .44 you kept in the ticket drawer.

[Max Sinclair]

I used to carry a side lever powerful grease gun so when they weed off the bridge they received a lump of sticky black grease.
The camera helped.