Ken demands lock that sunk his boat is included in C&RT winter works
June 2017 - It cost Canal & River Trust half a million pounds to settle out of court with Ken Churchill after his boat sank in Lock 40 of the Bank Newton flight after snagging on a lock wall. He may have defeated C&RT in court, but Ken remains determined other boaters won't suffer the same fate, as Peter Underwood reports.
Ken Churchill has now used the C&RT consultation on winter works to demand that the Trust does something to remedy what he sees as major safety hazards on lock 40 and other Leeds and Liverpool locks where boats have snagged.
He has made his email to C&RT publicly available and we reproduce it here:
“Good morning.
2017/18 C&RT Winter Works Consultation.
C&RTs Minimum Safety Standard 2.d.3 states: "Lock Chambers and Gates must be kept free of protrusions which could cause snagging of vessels."
Lock 40 on the Bank Newton flight, Leeds & LIVERPOOL Canal, has a hidden protrusion, below the water line, with a 6 inch out of vertical wall above this protrusion.
Why isn't Lock 40 included in CRT's 2017/18 Winter Works?
C&RT settled my complaint out of court, with over £500,000 liability costs and expenses, because C&RT knew they were liable for the sinking of my boat due to this protrusion and their neglect.
C&RT incident reports record at least six boat hang ups on Lock 40 North chamber wall before my boat hung up and sank, August 2012. Why wasn't Lock 40 included in previous C&RT Works? In 2006 & 2009 British Waterways, aware of the protrusions, repointed lock 40 North chamber wall.
Mr Whittaker, Principle Inspector of Health & Safety, put his concerns to CRT: " Principally that this lock (40) was not a fanciful risk, it involved potential fatalities to vulnerable members of the public, people could not be relied upon to mitigate the risk by following good boating practice, if they knew what that was, or to react appropriately in an emergency situation (i.e. Serious wall hang up), and there is a documented history of previous incidents and near misses involving wall and other hang ups on the flight ..."
Mr Whittaker also pointed out that: "The wall at Lock 40 has 3 stone courses sloping backward. It is in fact out of vertical alignment by 6 inches and as such poses a high risk when a boat is positioned close to and parallel with the wall."
Why isn't Lock 40 included in 2017/18 CRT Winter Works?
Remedial action will involve returning the North chamber wall to vertical by moving about fifteen masonry blocks at a estimated cost of £55,000 - ten times more than my out of court settlement for the loss of my boat, lifestyle, possessions and almost four years of C&RT litigation.
It should be noted that CRT have on record twenty-four chamber wall hang ups on the Leeds & LIverpool Canal. Twenty two of them at Bank Newton flight of six locks. Yet despite these locks failing to meet CRT's minimum safety standard 2.d.3. and CRT's adopted and approved Standard for Public Management pages 66 & 67, which state "Lock chambers and Gates must be kept free of protrusions which could cause snagging of vessels." Waterways Manager Chantelle Seabourne declares that these locks are not defective.
Why weren't these know Bank Newton lock defects included in previous CRT Winter Works?
Will it take another settlement of over £500,000 liability costs and expenses before C&RT implement their Minimum Safety Standard 2.d.3. " Lock chambers and Gates must be kept free of protrusions which could cause snagging of vessels."
OR A FATALITY?
Why isn't Lock 40 included in 2017/18 CRT Winter Works?
Ken Churchill
As yet there has been no response from C&RT, but it has insisted in the past that it's out of court settlement with Ken Churchill doesn't mean that it accepts lock 40 is unsafe.
Photo: Ken Churchill's boat after lock 40 was emptied.