I Really Didn't Want To Do This.

[MauriceMynah]

I am moored at Acle and the BA are cutting the grass. This is a good thing.

They have sent a team of four to fulfill this task. This too is a good thing.

Sadly, they only have one lawnmower so while one mows, the other three stand and watch.

I leave it to you all to assess whether this is also a good thing!

I never wanted to be thought of as a "BA basher" but in the current climate I'm finding it increasingly difficult to ignore things such as this.

I have photo evidence of the above, but not for open forum as the workers (sic) may be recognised.

[YnysMon]

That does seem daft.

By the way, as we were passing Thorpe about a fortnight ago, I noticed they have a shiny new weed cutter. I knew it was new (try saying that) because it still had plastic covering the operators seat. Hopefully, that will be in operation soon.

[ExSurveyor]

It has been in use, Saturday was the maiden trip of my brand new replacement outboard. I nice gentle run from Brundall to Bramerton and return was interrupted by the engine beeping a lot and faltering. I pulled over, checked the prop and oil, all good. I left it for 10 minutes to cool then slowly returned to the yard with the cover off.

The yard had a similar problem with one of their day boats with the same engine on saturday.

The senior engineer said it is weed blocking the water flow, me being sceptical said, we will see.

Today this came past, maybe the engineer was right

 

[Mouldy]

20 minutes ago, MauriceMynah said:

I am moored at Acle and the BA are cutting the grass. This is a good thing.

They have sent a team of four to fulfill this task. This too is a good thing.

Sadly, they only have one lawnmower so while one mows, the other three stand and watch.

I leave it to you all to assess whether this is also a good thing!

I never wanted to be thought of as a "BA basher" but in the current climate I'm finding it increasingly difficult to ignore things such as this.

I have photo evidence of the above, but not for open forum as the workers (sic) may be recognised.

I can understand two people, even with just one mower, incase of an accident or incident when a second person would be present to alert emergency services etc.  Even working in an office over Bank Holidays, we weren’t able to leave a sole worker with no one else present for the same reason.  Four, however, does seem like overkill.

[BroadsAuthority]

Hi there,

Actually two of the four people are volunteers helping out for the day unpaid, and two are operations technicians.

They are there cutting the grass and also combing through it beforehand for discarded pieces of metal (as Acle is a hot-spot for magnet fishing and the team often come across sharp rusty metal which needs to be removed beforehand).

There's hand vibration limits regarding the use of the mower (hence they take turns). We also have health and safety rules around lone-working whilst mowing near the water.

The mowing at Acle is just one job today. The team share transport and are off to How Hill later to do some more cutting, tidying and sprucing up of the How Hill moorings.

Hope that clarifies,

Tom

[bucket]

It must be a training session for 3 of them MM?

Maybe some seasonal new starters?

I think it is worth asking.

[bucket]

Also MM, I don't think anyone on here would think you are a BA basher, or a basher of anyone else for that matter.

 

[Smoggy]

2 minutes ago, bucket said:

Also MM, I don't think anyone on here would think you are a BA basher, or a basher of anyone else for that matter.

 

Ssshhhhhh, no-one mention the word Bishop... 

While combing the grass one has to hold compass to feug shui the centre parting correctly.

And as it's beside the river another to issue the mooring fine.

Maybe I'm not taking this entirely serious.....

 

[MauriceMynah]

Thank you Tom, that does clarify the issue. I further appreciate that it would be difficult to make the point at the time and place of this sort of activity.

So, I am wiser and better educated and I apologise for my misunderstanding the situation. 

I do wonder, given the current situation and let's face it, friction that exists, if anything can be done to change the perception that is generated. 

If I hadn't said anything, I would have developed a poorer and poorer opinion and you would not have had the opportunity to clarify. 

[YnysMon]

8 minutes ago, MauriceMynah said:

I do wonder, given the current situation and let's face it, friction that exists, if anything can be done to change the perception that is generated. 

If I hadn't said anything, I would have developed a poorer and poorer opinion and you would not have had the opportunity to clarify. 

MM make a very good point here.

[Bernard]

I would've just gone and asked, ba front line staff are always very friendly I've found.

[BroadsAuthority]

Hi MM, glad to be of help.

I appreciate occurrences like the one documented in this thread might look a certain way, but due to how busy our work programme is it's very unlikely that our operations team would send multiple members of staff out seemingly doing nothing just for the sake of it. There should always be a legitimate reason for what you are seeing. Our volunteers usually wear different clothing to BA staff (who tend to wear the light blue/teal polo shirts, long sleeve shirts or the Columbia gear) but sometimes it's obscured by high-vis or PPE.

Unfortunately we have incidents occasionally where people challenge our staff. I believe that one of our long-standing operations technicians was out over the winter with a group of new apprentices. He was teaching them/demonstrating to them how to undertake some countryside management tasks. Someone took it upon themselves to take close-up photographs of the staff and become abusive as they felt there were too many members of staff to undertake the task.

Point being our staff are always keen to keep you in the loop if possible and have a chat about what they are up to. Visitors can always politely ask our staff what they are up to, or get in touch via the website/give Broads Control a call (01603 756056) if they want something clarifying.

Best

Tom 

[YnysMon]

4 hours ago, BroadsAuthority said:

I believe that one of our long-standing operations technicians was out over the winter with a group of new apprentices. He was teaching them/demonstrating to them how to undertake some countryside management tasks. Someone took it upon themselves to take close-up photographs of the staff and become abusive as they felt there were too many members of staff to undertake the task.

That's such a useful thing to know. We tend to forget that people need training.

I'm sorry that the BA staff have to deal with such abusive behaviour. Having worked for a 'public body' early on in my career (pre-privatised British Rail) I got quite a lot of flak from people who just wanted to vent off. They don't see you as an individual, but a representative of the organisation. It doesn't matter if you are just a lowly meagrely paid individual just trying to do your job.

[MauriceMynah]

Well, you gotta laugh haven't you  !

Yesterday evening I felt a little odd, ( yes, I know !!! ) a bit like I was going down with something.

It was the start of a gout attack. This happens from time to time, sometimes in my foot, other times in my hand. This time it is my left hand that's copped it.

Several Ibuprofen and paracetamol later and the pain is subsiding but with little or no strength in my hand I'm not moving anywhere, today and possibly tomorrow. 

This leaves me on the 24hr BA mooring rather longer than 24 hours. Now I rather wish I hadn't lost my temper with them yesterday !!!

Oh well, what goes around comes around.

[annv]

Hi Maurice you need to get some Colchicine tablets, take two on fist signs then one nxt day.It works fine for me Mussels set mine off.John

[MauriceMynah]

Is that a prescription drug John ?

I have several triggers, one of which is stress. I shouldn't have let myself get so wound up yesterday. 

It is possible that my short temper yesterday was caused by the gout ( do you get that problem?) Though its equally possible that the short temper caused the gout. Never an easy one to work out is that.