by: Frank L.
Back in 2013 I took on the job of painting and greasing locks as there seemed to be a gap in anyone regularly carrying out this task. We now have 10 operational and 3 partially restored locks. There are now two volunteers to each lock who keep them tidy, and report faults or issues as they arise. This has been a real success story as far as we at Western Depot are concerned, as it takes the load off our mobile team at the Eastington Depot as we need to respond to SVCC,SDC, and CCT requests for tasks to be dealt with (grafetti being just one example).
This month has proved to be very productive with Maurice, Les P, Royston, Colin, Richard A, dealing with various tasks - subject to weather of course.
This year so far we have cleaned down the bottom gates of 3 sets of locks, painted where necessary at most of them, and dealt with other issues as they are reported to us. Grass cutting, scrub clearance and weeding around spill weirs is always ongoing - especially from Spring onward. This sort of job is time consuming and man power dependant, and anyone who would like to help out is more than welcome at the depot.
With the increase in CCT's fleet of vessels, we can now ask for them to provide platforms for maintaining the gates when necessary as they have the high cabins which is required when trying to reach the upper levels of the taller gates (the punts are unsuitable for that job).
Although our team is not high profile, we get around and spread the word to passers-by about what is happening with the regeneration of the canal, and also get a lot of satisfaction from leaving a lock looking well kept and serviceable.
