Sometimes it just seems like too much work!

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On Friday I cycled over the lock on the river and noticed that the holder which should contain a life ring was empty. Usually these holders show the organisation responsible for them and have a contact number, but this one has nothing. I felt that I ought to report the issue, just in case there was an incident, but I wasn’t sure who to contact. There was another sign at the lock with the details of the Environment Agency, so I thought I would try them, but of course Friday evening didn’t seem like the best time to call and there was no email address. So this morning I called the number on the sign and listened to quite a lot of ‘on-hold’ music and repeated exhortations to find information on their website, before a nice man finally picked up and told me I should call the ‘incident hotline’ on a different number. So I called that but the man there seemed to have trouble getting his head around the problem and eventually told me I should call the council. The snag is I’m not sure which council would be responsible for that. At this point it was tempting to just give up. But there is a website called ‘FixMyStreet’ where you can report any problems such as fly tipping, broken streetlights, potholes etc. anywhere in the UK and they will route it to the appropriate authority for you, saving just this kind of hassle, so I have sent a report there. Hopefully they will find the right person. The site is run by a charity called ‘MySociety’ and it certainly makes this kind of thing easier! All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2026.