Seasonal Lock Keeper

Canal & River Trust • Temp • Ellesmere Port • 2w ago

Job Purpose

The Canal & River Trust is one of the UK’s largest charities, we maintain 2,000 miles of historic canals, rivers, docks and reservoirs, along with museums, archives and the country’s third largest collection of protected historic buildings – preserving them for future generations.

We are approaching our busy season when our waterways across England & Wales welcome increasing numbers of visitors for short visits and longer trips and holidays, enjoying our wonderful green and blue spaces.

To support our visitors throughout Spring & Summer of 2024, we currently have a fantastic opportunity to join us temporarily as a Seasonal Waterway Lock Keeper to provide support during our busy boating period from 1st of April - 31st of October 2025.

These are fixed term seasonal roles, however you will be working full time hours following our annualised hours system. Full details of the rota system will be discussed at interview, however your availability and flexibility to work Friday - Tuesday across the season, including bank holiday is essential. Our waterways are always open, and our visitors wish to squeeze as much enjoyment our of their time in our spaces as possible during the lighter longer days from Easter through to end of Summer, so your working day will start at 08:00am, finishing at 4pm.

If you love to work outdoors (all weathers!), enjoy meeting and helping people, and care about our visitors having a memorable experience on our waterways then this may be the role for you. You'll be given training, appropriate workwear and get the change to not only support and ensure a fabulous visitor experience, but also play your part in protecting and conserving our heritage spaces and assets are for today, and for future generations.

Coverage:

Alongside volunteers, you will be assisting with the successful navigation of visitors through the historic Wigan flight.

Whilst your administration base will be National waterways museum in Ellesmere Port, all duties and your normal working area will be between Lock 65 and Lock 85 in Wigan.

Successful applicants will be trained on each site & starting points will be supplied via a rota in advance.

Knowledge, Skills/Qualifications & Experience

Through your engagement with visitors and local communities, you will be promoting a safe and secure visitor & customer experience on the waterways. Your role will involve delivering the general works programme in order to enhance the reputation of the network as a valued national asset. You will also be supporting Canal & River Trust’s aims to improve safety and increase the number of people using the waterways whilst protecting the heritage and integrity of the inland waterway network.

As Seasonal Waterway Operative with Lock Keeping duties you will experience a physically demanding role. You will be on your feet, moving between locks, managing water levels and assisting with the lock management many times a day to ensure the safe passage of our visitors. You'll be doing this and maintaining the towpaths and public areas and assisting the operational teams, volunteer efforts and responding to visitor enquiries throughout your day, regardless of the weather, so it's essential that you love to be active, busy, helping people and keeping your patch organised and safe.

Working outside, providing outstanding levels of customer service - you will be a visible and approachable advocate for the work that the Canal & River Trust does
Undertake water control duties including the operation of structures eg locks and bridges in a safe manner to ensure that customers are not hindered in their visit to the waterway.
Undertake key duties associated with the maintenance of the waterway and waterside eg towpath litter removal, towpath and access repairs.
Ensure that environmental and heritage issues are taken into consideration in all work that is undertaken.
Provide a first response for any emergencies/incidents that may occur within the waterway.
Support asset inspections. Identify and report any structure failures, breaches, damage or pollution incidents to Operations Supervisor or Engineers.
Using appropriate basic tools and equipment, undertake vegetation management activities to ensuring our outdoor spaces are well maintained
Participate where agreed in the standby rota in order to support delivery of customer service to defined standards and reaction to emergency situations.
Experience of working within relevant environment eg customer service.
Comply with Canal & River Trust Health & Safety policy and defined standards, report incidents, accidents and near misses. Complete point of work risk assessments and make adjustments to work methods where appropriate. Ensure all equipment (PPE, plant, materials etc) is appropriate for the task.

Skills & experience:

You will have a good understanding of what great customer engagement and service looks and feels like
Experience of working within relevant environment eg customer service, outdoor visitor services/maintenance/visitor attractions
Basic literacy and numeracy skills.
Valid driving licence appropriate for vehicle to be driven

Candidates who have used power tools, have experience in similar environment, experience working with volunteers, vegetation management and/or some experience completing maintenance work is desirable but not essential. Full training from supportive colleagues will be given.

Come and help us to create wonderful memories on our North East Waterways.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient suitable applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

What We Offer

This is a fixed term contract during our busy visitor summer season. Full time equivalent salary of £23,260 will be prorated for your fixed term period. In addition to your pro-rated annual salary, we can offer a competitive contributory DC Pension scheme arrangement, and numerous other employee benefits. Further details on our benefits can be found here.

We aim to represent the diverse communities we are part of and welcome applicants from across all sectors of the community. We strongly believe that a diverse workforce brings with it a diversity of ideas, thinking and ways of working which enhances what we do.

When you join the Canal & River Trust you become a member of an engaged team working to preserve our heritage for future generations. Come and put your skills to use on our waterways.

Find out more about the work we do on our website: https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/about-us