16/6/2008 - from P Quarmby with Freddie Pilditch response below:
Restings 6 Friary Road Wraysbury TW19 5JP
Tel: 01784 483933 email: freddie@pilditch.net
Peter Quarmby, Esq
Area Manager – South East Thames
Swift House
FRIMLEY
Surrey GU16 5SQ 16th June, 2008.
Dear Mr Quarmby,
Plan to dispose of Lock-keepers’ houses
Thank you for your letter of the 11th June. You make a number of statements without providing any supporting detail.
Your letter doesn’t answer the main issues and I would simply make the following points, answering your letter paragraph by paragraph:
No. 1 We all know just how good or bad CCTV is from watching the blurred images on Crimewatch. Will EA have the same quality of camera and lens as used to recognize car number plates, because that is what it would need ?
No. 2 Unfortunately, we know how reliable EA telemetry is from past experience.
No. 3 You state "... weirs are virtually impossible to work when the power is switched off". Virtually impossible is not the same as impossible.
No. 5 "Most of the houses we plan to sell are not on lock-sites...” The comment on choice of sites not to be disposed of leaves me a little puzzled. What is the criteria ? Old Windsor, Bell Weir and Penton Hook will go on the market – each is slightly remote and response from the EA and the police is unlikely to be immediate. Much the same is probably true of most locks.
No. 6 If dredging is not the best option, what is ? Where did the notion that dredging (to create greater volume for water to handle flood conditions) didn't work come from ? This shows a remarkable lack of common sense and basic physics high up in the EA. What are the better options?
continued overleaf. . .
Before you go any further with this ridiculous proposal you should:
a. Consider selling your “off-river houses” to raise the capital that you obviously need ?
b. Provide details of EA properties “off-river” that might be used including their location and distance from the locks to be served. Incidentally, how is the lock-keeper meant to get to the lock – will you be providing all-weather transport, i.e. 4 x 4s ?
Show the time table – of installing equipment necessary to the monitoring and control of the river as well as its cost to purchase and install.
c. Justify your plans taking into account - Finances, Employment Relations, Health and Safety and Timetable to complete the plan.
Until these questions are resolved you should abandon your plans until you have thought the thing out completely, instead of announcing your intentions without showing any great benefit whilst causing a lot of worry to lock-keepers and river users alike. Not very good man-management !
A copy of your letter together with this response is being sent to all the copyholders shown below.
Yours sincerely,
Freddie Pilditch
Cc The Right Hon Hilary Benn, MP, Adam Afriyie, MP, Chris Smith, Esq., Cllr. Colin Raynor, CSG/ThamesAwash