Thames lock cottages for rent
Goring Lock house will be available for rent to the public – photo: Waterway Images
INLAND WATERWAYS: Empty houses by nine locks and weirs on the River Thames previously occupied by resident lock keepers are to be rented out by the Environment Agency (EA), writes Harry Arnold.
The houses are at locks in Grafton, Cleve, Goring, Whitchurch, Blakes (Reading), Chertsey and Sunbury. Seven of the houses in question are currently vacant, or will be so within the next few months.
The EA says it needs to make savings and other lock keepers could perform the same job. There has been an £800,000 reduction in government funding for waterways operations and renting out the cottages will bring in an extra £416,000 of revenue.
EA waterways manager Matt Carter said there had been no resident lock or weir keeper for some time at Chertsey, Cleeve, Grafton and Sunbury locks.
“Resident lock and weir keepers are not on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and are not obliged to respond to any incidents that happen outside of their normal working hours,” he added. “Instead, we have a pool of more than 250 employees who are on call around the clock and whose job it is to respond rapidly to incidents, wherever they may occur on the river."
The GMB Union says losing lock keepers could lead to a slower response time and possible flooding.
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