Thoughts on the canal lengthsman debate

'JT' writes to say: "I have voted "yes" to keeping Jim Stretch. British Waterways seem to be at odds with on the one hand crowing (quite rightly) that the Audlem Locks are one of their best stretches of canal with over 11,000 boats a year to saying that they are not going to have on-site expertise to keep it this way. Jim does a fantastic job and maintenance – teams aren't around to pick up litter, check lock gates daily etc.

"BW can't have it both ways. My suggestion is that they take a look at the Rochdale canal – towpaths filthy, canal dumping etc. Do they want this for Audlem?"

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