The Vole -- A Lockies Life

AV has received a number of complaints recently regarding the behaviour of Lockies. I was at a meeting recently where the latest of these complaints was discussed.

It appears the skipper of his £250k floating gin palace and crew of 4, hailed the Lockie (busy cutting the grass) on the Atherstone flight and demanded he worked the locks for them ! He asked if the crew were disabled, and when the reply was of "of course not" he went back to cutting the grass.

The meeting was to consider AV's reply to the written complaint from the narrowboat's skipper. "Tell him to F. Off and buy a cottage" was my suggestion, but this outburst was met with a stony silence! I had unwittingly displayed "real boater" tendencies!

In the end Hugh Baton suggested that the reply should infer it was not AV policy for it's staff to work locks for able bodied crew.

However, if skippers were to purchase a Platinum Licence ?