An alternative thread for disputes if that's your thing

Much confused, uninformed and unhelpful content has been heaped on top of what was already a rather confused subject in the Winter CC in the NW thread -- not least of all, in the general lack of clarity as to what the Ribble Link actually is, . . and precisely where it begins and ends. It will, no doubt, come as a surprise to some that it does NOT begin or end - depending on the direction of travel - at Tarleton Lock, on the Leeds & Liverpool's Rufford Arm.

It begins, or ends - depending on the direction of travel - at a Half-tide Barrier, approximately half a mile downstream of the A583 Blackpool Road Bridge, in what is known locally as Savick Brook -- a land drainage watercourse, with its outfall into the tidal River Ribble, that was widened and deepened sufficiently to allow the passage of small pleasure craft, 'canalised' by means of locks, and opened to pleasure craft traffic in July 2002. The other end of the Ribble Link - approximately 4 miles from the half-tide barrier/gate is the canal basin, off the Lancaster Canal, on the outskirts of the town of the Lancashire town of Preston.

There are many questions to be answered with regard to how - to give it its full title - the Millenium Ribble Link is operated, maintained and financed. Is it feasible to increase the numbers of pleasure craft using it, for instance, and why is there a nonsensical obligatory one-way only working regime imposed on what is, when all's said and done, simply a 4 mile long, non-tidal, small scale canalised river navigation ?

Why does the Canal & River Trust [C&RT] - the navigation/competent harbour authority for the Ribble Link - impose such an amateurish, ill-conceived tidal passage planning/scheduling regime between Tarleton Lock, where the Leeds & Liverpool's Rufford Arm meets and joins the tidal River Douglas, and the half-tide gate/barrier, situated close to the A583 road bridge over the Savick Brook, . .where the navigation - the Ribble Link - becomes semi-tidal for approximately half a mile before becoming non-tidal at Lock No.8 for the remaining three and a half miles to the canal basin where it joins the Lancaster Canal ?

Why does the C&RT persist with outdated and unnecessarily costly annual maintenance dredging methods on the Ribble Link in preference to adopting the much less costly, and more operationally practical and effective, plough dredging methods used nowadays by other harbour authorities and port operators to maintain berths and navigation channels at the required least depths ?

Because he'd lose.