New boater surveys
New boater surveys CRT’s annual Boaters’ Survey has been shortened and renamed the ‘Perceptions of the Trust’ survey, which was sent out to a third of the Trust’s leisure boat licence holders at the start of April. It has also introduced a monthly ‘Waterway Experience’ survey of boaters to gather up-to-date feedback on the […]
Community involvement
Community involvement Chair, Stella Ridgway, meets the North West Regional Director. I am going to offer apologies in advance – I have not been well – the downside of chronic kidney disease and renal failure is the body’s inability to shake off infections, and I have had one since late February. I managed to go […]
Warming climate and relationships?
Warming climate and relationships? Editor Peter Fellows detects changes that could affect boaters both negatively and positively. It’s not yet summer and there are already boating restrictions in place because of damaged or failed infrastructure and low reservoirs, the latter following the lack of winter and spring rainfall after last year’s record-breaking dry summer. In […]
National inland navigation forum meeting in February
National inland navigation forum meeting NINF met at the St. Pancras Cruising Club in February with all but one of the member bodies represented. This forum continues to be a useful meeting point, bringing together navigational bodies involved with CRT, EA and other navigation authorities. There was much discussion surrounding issues relating to the possibility […]
Loss of facilities
Loss of facilities The boaters’ facilities at Newbold on Avon on the North Oxford canal have closed and all ex-BWML marinas have now stopped offering free facilities to passing boaters. A statement from BWML Sawley Marina read: ‘Since BWML’s affiliation with The Trust is no longer, we aren’t obliged to provide facilities to passing boaters. […]
Busy like bees
Busy like bees Chair, Stella Ridgway, attended the last CRT Council meeting February was glorious: unseasonably warm and sunny, and both the birds and trees were slightly confused; an early spring followed by (in Manchester) a month’s rain in two days. There were flood warnings for a lot of rivers and hearing the flood alarms […]
Evidence please
Evidence please Editor Peter Fellows starts surveys of lost facilities and shallow visitor moorings. The warming weather means that many of the estimated 50% of boaters who are leisure cruisers start to gear up for their first outing of the year and the other 50% who live aboard come out of hibernation to enjoy the […]
Clean Air Strategy
Clean Air Strategy David Fletcher looks at the options for boat stoves in the light of new regulations. DEFRA has just updated its report on the Clean Air Strategy. This is all about the impact of pollution from solid-fuel stoves. DEFRA is telling us how it intends to tackle these (and other) sources of air […]
Short-term moorings – is it time for a review?
Short-term moorings – is it time for a review? Mark Tizard calls for a review of the visitor mooring framework policy. CRT put a lot of time and effort into creating a short-term visitor mooring framework policy, which is available on their website. This laid down an evidence-based process behind any proposed changes to visitor […]
Capturing knowledge
Capturing knowledge Chair, Stella Ridgway, is concerned that CRT’s redundancies will result in experience being lost. Happy New Year, although tinged with sadness as we report the death of our Vice Chair, Paul Howland. He will be sadly missed by all who knew him; his knowledge was always welcome and his advice given freely and […]