Matt Black -- Dirty Protest?

For some time now it has been the policy by the Engineering Dept. of AV(2010)PLC to dump sludge from dredging operations on the nearest suitable bit of towpath. However, as the dredging funds had been withdrawn for 2006, this anti-social (and anti-boater) behaviour was assumed to have stopped. Not so! Several stretches of towpath in the Braunston area have been covered in the aforementioned sludge. This is somewhat surprising as there did not appear to be dredging operations in that immediate area. Even more curious is the stretches of towpath to suffer this fate. They just happen to be areas that continuous cruisers frequent during the winter months. There were mutterings claiming "harassment" of continuous cruisers as the root cause of this state of affairs.

I mention the above as a backdrop to an event which took place at the local AV(2010)PLC area office. It seems sometime over the weekend someone had dumped several lorry loads of manure in the AV car park. Not just anywhere mind, but all across the "executive" car park in front of the building. There was a placard on the top of one heap, claiming the perpetrators were members of the Provisional IWA!

The police were called but as the problem was on private property it was not obvious to them what crime had been committed so they went away again. They returned some time later in a large van and proceeded to fill plastic bags with some of the manure. The policemen described their actions as "collecting evidence", but why they needed 50 bags of evidence remains another mystery.