Repairs by the complaints process

Back on this again. BW don't seem to learn from previous complaints: one broken diffuser on a mains power bollard:

Note the missing corner at the on the bottom left.

• Point it out to at the annual electrical safety inspection: the engineer agrees it needs replacing.
• Wait all Summer nothing happens. 
• Point it out a second time to another engineer inspecting the electrics, he agrees it should be fixed and will tell BW. 
• Nothing happens
• Phone BW up to report this and another repair. 
• The other repair is done but no response on this one.
• Thinks, I am paying BW nearly £5000 a year for this mooring. 
• Start Stage One Complaint.

I will let you know what happens!

Letting the mushrooms see the light?

It may surprise my regulars but I'm going to say something (almost) positive about British Waterways today.

Along held grumble at local user group meetings has been how on too many occasions local staff leading those meetings have been not been briefed over national policy discussions. The phrase "you seem to know more about this than us", has been heard from their lips more than a few times! (= mushroom theory)

It seems after many years of asking, both personally and nationally through NABO's good offices, someone has finally decided to do something about this one. Accordingly all local user group meetings have been issued with a national briefing on boating issues. (As soon as I find one posted on the web I'll add a link.)

I have to acknowledge this as progress at last!

Paddington Business Barges confirmed as a White Elephant

My friend Allan Richards has through his persistent public questioning of BW proved what most of us locally thought was the case: The business barges BW installed in Paddington Basin are a financial failure. It did not take a genius in property investment to work out that trying to market these barges as workspaces adjacent to one of the biggest office space developments in West London was going to be a challenge, whatever the economic climate.

The signs of course were apparent a year ago.

The answer to Allan's latest FOI request demonstrates that over the last eight years the project has made no return.