Why are all these new bollards being set into the locksides of narrow canal locks? What's the reasoning behind it?
And just as importantly, who took the decision?
Earlier this year I first noticed them at Middlewich on the Trent & Mersey canal (pictured here [top] so new that they hadn't been painted, and so had to be fenced off for safety), and then on the Caldon Canal.
Others have spotted them being installed in Birmingham and elsewhere.
Paul Balmer of Waterway Routes is only the latest person to write about them (here), but many others have done so.
Yet nobody has yet reported an official reason for them being needed. And I've not read a single favourable report about them.
There's certainly a case for them on the broad canal locks, of course, but only by a lone narrowboat when locking 'uphill'.
My perception is that on the narrow locks they are nothing but tripping hazards. They serve no useful purpose and so certainly can't be due to health and safety reasons.
Who made the decision to install them? Who made the decision to pay for them? It would be nice to have someone individual to blame, and not an amorphous, anonymous bureaucracy.
Perhaps they are part of an official BW art installation, as with Anthony Lysycia's lockside sculptures at Stockton Brook on the Caldon Canal?
My money is on Damien Hirst as the author of this particular prank. He certainly has the money to waste on the 'installation', and the money to back up the compensation claims for people tripping over them.
Personally, I'd much prefer new bollards to be put in all the places where there is currently no-where to moor up to set a lock, like on one of the locks above Penkridge, the second lock up at Tyrley, one above Stone etc etc. Very troublesome for us lone boaters!
Posted by: Carrie | Saturday, 30 August 2008 at 07:39 AM
These bollards defy rational explanation. At the time of the DEFRA cuts to BW I signed petitions and wrote to my MP in protest. I now see I was wrong. BW are no longer fit to manage public money.
Posted by: Dave | Friday, 29 August 2008 at 08:01 PM
An example of someone from BW having no practical knowledge of working a narrow boat through a Lock and wasting much needed funds.Why don,t they ask an experienced IWA forum before launching this rubbish.
Posted by: Max Sinclair | Friday, 29 August 2008 at 02:08 PM
And though we (I) strap quite a lot to slow/stop the boat (it's a bugger to stop) I wouldn't have thought that was something BW would want to encourage. There was a long thread on Canalworld about these mystery bollards (also currently appearing on the Oxford) and I think there was a semi-official or authoritative response, but I can't remember what it was.
Posted by: Sarah | Friday, 29 August 2008 at 09:34 AM
Dave
Thanks, but surely you are referring to strapping posts? These bollards are mostly in the wrong place anyway, and serve no useful purpose except to trip people up! :-)
Posted by: Andrew Denny | Thursday, 28 August 2008 at 11:33 PM
The bollards are probably there for the benefit of those that still know and appreciate the art and skills of the old boatmen to aid the checking and control of an unpowered boat or a butty in a lock?
They were always in control of the boat they were in charge of, because their livelihood & their good name relied upon the safe arrival of their boat & cargo to their destination.
Posted by: Diesel Dave | Thursday, 28 August 2008 at 11:21 PM
Iain, yes, Paul Balmer mentions those square ones too. I think square bollards are great for tying up to. But you don't need to tie up in a narrow lock, of course.
Posted by: Andrew Denny | Thursday, 28 August 2008 at 09:43 PM
There has been a lot of talk about the square wooden ones that have been appearing about the system as well.
Posted by: iain smith | Thursday, 28 August 2008 at 05:35 PM
They're part of BW's new "Customer Service Standard". I agree that they're, er, bollards.
Posted by: Richard Fairhurst | Thursday, 28 August 2008 at 04:37 PM