July 2007 – Steve's Blog

Living without mains water

Well its a week since the Mythe Works which produces all our drinking water shutdown after being flooded. Severn Trent’s contingency plans involving a few hundred bowsers is a “logistical nightmare” (a direct quote from Severn Trent) with tankers being “too big to fit down the narrow streets” (another direct quote from Severn Trent). In fact it is obvious that their contingency plan just doesn’t work – it might have worked 20-30 years ago but not now.

Over the past few years Severn Trent have made over £1,000,000,000 in profits and have given over £500,000,000 to their share holders. They’ve put our water rates up by more than the rate of inflation every year too claiming that they needed the money to invest in their infrastructure. They were also told 6 years ago to ensure that key infrastructure was protected.

As can be seen they’ve not done that. They have no backup systems, no proper contingency plans, no clue. Maybe the flooding was unforeseen – not that it should have as the Mythe floods up to the edge of the plant every winter, but other catastrophic failure/closure of the plant should have been factored into their business plans. Severn Trent have shut down other waterworks, which could have given them backup resources, to save money (and boost profits).

So there is petition on the Number 10 website asking for the government for force Severn Trent (and other utility companies) to put full backup systems in place. Please sign it and pass the details on.

Anyway, back to the main topic of this post – living without mains water.

Well actually its not that bad, we’ve got several large containers in the garden with rain water which we use to flush the toilet (we only flush when we really have to) and each day on the way back from work I pop in at the Sainsbury’s on Tewkesbury Road and pick up our allocation of bottled water. Any clean water we use for washing goes into a container and that too ends up going into the toilet tank.

Maybe having a canal boat with a 150 gallon water tank makes you more “water aware” because on the boat every pint you take out of the tank from the tap has to be put back in the next time you stop at a water point.

There are 4 bowsers within about 300 yards of the house – I have no idea if any of them are empty (an ongoing problem due to the distribution problems) or not as I haven’t had to use any of them.

Severn Trent are telling us that it could be another week before we get any water back. Tewkesbury will be getting water today or tomorrow but it can’t be drunk as it could be contaminated with flood water.

Flooding

It wasn’t fun getting home on Friday – although the middle of the trip was OK the start of it (from Hanley Swan to Upton) was pretty bad due to serious flooding on the Hanley Road near Hanley Castle and the end of it (from Pitville Gates to Imjin Road) was extremely nasty. Wyman’s Brook had overflowed and was running down the road:

The back garden was also a river with the grid overwhelmed by the water.

It all died down by about 8pm but I have to admit that I didn’t sleep well. Saturday dawned and apart from some mud everything was fine and we did some tidying up and various things. It was on Sunday that things started going down hill. Severn Trent announcing on the BBC that the water had gone off – and the only way to find out any information was to use their website which promptly died. What ever happened to driving round in a van using a tannoy (apart from the fact that it costs money and that would mean less money in the rather deep pockets of the Board of Directors and the share holders).

BBC news has been covering the ongoing disaster as it unfolds round Tewkesbury and Gloucester but it all seems oddly distant. The water is still on here (for the time being) as is the power and apart from being sensible with our water usage life is pretty much as normal – the ADSL line is behaving itself after being a bit flaky this morning and I’m working from home (which is something I really grateful that the company I work for allows).

Severn Trent have said that it could be 14 days before our water is back on. I cordially invite the Directors to come to my house and live with us for the next couple of weeks – of course they’ve probably all buggered off to the sun and just don’t give a damn about their customers.

Beer and Boats and the BSS, Part Two

Well yesterday was a most excellent and enjoyable day. Met Nick at the bottom of the road and we headed off to the Cheltenham Friends of the Samaritans beer festival at the Old Patesians Rugby Club. They had about 26 beers, mainly from local breweries, and a pig roast for when you got hungry. We got there at about 12:15 and left at about 9:30pm and had worked our way through a significant majority of the beers (half pints only of course).

We stopped for a curry on the way home at the Indus (where NONE of us had the Prawn on Puri ((Many, Many moons ago a group of us went to the Indus for a meal and when we were placing the order for our starters the waiter kept trying to persuade each of us to change our decision and order the Prawn on Puri.. “The Prawn on Puri is very good”, “May I recommend the Prawn on Puri, Sir” and so on. None of us took his suggestion up and its now become a matter of rote that someone has to suggest ordering the Prawn on Puri, knowing that no-one actually will)) ) and it was just after midnight when I got home.

This morning I left the house just after 8:30am and picked up Nick and we headed off to the boat to fix the gas pipe and a couple of other things for the BSS.

Getting to Norbury wharf is quite easy but the last mile or so is down a single track road with only a few passing places. When we got there the car park was full so we ended up parking in the rather large, pub car park.

Mintball was moored right up by Norbury Wharf’s dry dock, which is actually the first lock on the Newport branch of the Shropshire Union which meant it was a bit of a walk with power tools and other bits and bobs.

The original idea we had for fixing down the gas pipe was to slip clips over it and then bolt them down through the wooden trunking that the gas pipe lies in. This turned out to be totally impossible to do for various reasons – so we ended up lifting the pipe out of the tray and fixing it using some 3/8 inch saddle clips (which we found in the Norbury Wharf Chandelery) on the wall right under the tray/lining overhang. So you can’t actually see the pipe unless you are lying in the bunks but at the same time it is not “hidden” and its properly supported. It also allowed us to tidy up the feed line to the fridge so its now neater than its ever been.

We also cleaned the burner in the oven – after 21 years its getting a bit ropey but hopefully it will get us through this BSS and we can then plan replacing it, and the rest of the kitchen, in the next couple of years.

A Few Pictures from Bude

Here are a few pictures from Bude:

The Falcon Hotel

Situated right down by the canal on the edge of town – a 3 star hotel with a good restaurant and wifi (£5 for 24 hours) and with its own bar and a pub right next door what more could you ask for?

The Canal Lock

The canal from the lock to the Falcon hotel is navigable and usable as moorings. CanalPlan AC does not have this lock in its database!

The Lock at Sunset

Kathy in silhouette on the beach

Beer and Boats and the BSS

Well its going to be a bit of a mad weekend.

On Saturday Nick, myself and a few friends are off to the ‘Second’ Cheltenham Beer Festival’ which is run by the Friends of the Samaritans as a way of raising funds. Running from 12 noon on Saturday till 11pm they are promising to have 26 beers, all from local breweries, some perry and cider, and a pig roast. Last year it was a great event – perfect weather and two rugby games to watch too (that’s what happens when you hold your event at a rugby ground) along with a giant Jenga set, Chess and activities like face painting for the kids.

Then on Sunday (assuming we are capable) we are off back to the boat to fix up a few problems that meant it failed it’s BSS check.

For those who don’t know about the BSS (Boat Safety Scheme) it is a set of safety checks invented by a bunch of safety-fascists which if your boat doesn’t pass then its not going to get a certificate and thus can’t get a licence. Unlike the MOT, which has lots of local garages involved, BSS examiners are like hens teeth and have a matching price tag.

I could go on here about the fact that the BSS is a shifting target which retrospectively applies changes, that it is inconsistent, and sometimes flies in the face of logic..a few years ago they decided that rigid push fit plastic spill rails on diesel engines were not safe and they had to be replaced with metal pipes. Bit award as the return fittings on some new Ford engines were for push fit pipes and that there were a lot of cars driving around, apparently perfectly safely, at 70mph with push fit hoses… but NO.. that’s not safe in a boat at 3-4mph

They did eventually back down on that one.. but it’s just one example of how disconnected the BSS can be from reality. In the past couple of years they have slackened off on a lot of things and there is a much more “common sense” style approach to it than there used to be but there are still places that give off that “We are saying you have to do this, not because it sensible, but because we can” and in places you get the feeling that the requirement has been pushed by people who have a vested interest in boats failing.

To be fair the people in the BSS office are excellent and have been really helpful in helping us resolve a couple of problems we have had.

A trip to Bude

Last Saturday (23rd June) morning we headed down to Bude for a couple of days. Leaving Cheltenham just after 7am might have seemed mad but it worked extremely well and, including a stop at Bridgewater Services (which I wouldn’t advise) we arrived outside the Falcon Hotel at about 10:20am.

As we couldn’t check in until 2pm we parked the car and walked down to the sea lock at the entrance of the Bude Canal. Although the canal has been closed for a long time and, due to its use of inclined planes, is unlikely to ever re-open the first couple of miles are in water. Although the first two barge sized locked and the low level swing bridges have been replaced by fixed spans it is a real pity that this length of canal isn’t being used as anything more than a linear park lake. I’ve suggested that Nick adds the canal to CanalPlan AC (at least the barge canal – the only section likely to be restored) as it is, for some reason, not in there at the moment.

After a wander round the lock and a quick potter round the wharf area we went and had a coffee at the Castle Tearooms before getting back in the car and heading off to Boscastle.

Rather than take the main A39 road we took the old coast road via Widemouth Bay, which is a very popular spot for surfers as the bay is very wide so the surf can be very good. Its certainly a good road as its quite quiet and the views from the top of the cliffs is very impressive.

We had to do a few miles on the A39, past the Rebel Cinema at Poundstock before turning off the main road and onto the winding road that goes through Boscastle to Tintagel. As Bostcastle had suffered some minor flooding on the Thursday our plan was to see if it was open, and if not continue through to Tintagel. On the steep road down into town was a notice that said “Shops and village open as normal” – so Tintagel was put off until Sunday.

I have to admit to being somewhat “let down” by Boscastle. I wasn’t sure what to expect but there didn’t actually seem to be a lot going on in what is actually “Boscastle Harbour”. The best part had to be the walk out to the headland that helps form the natural harbour – the scenery was excellent and there were some great photo opportunities.

Rock Formations at Boscastle

Looking back into the harbour