NABO meeting with CRT August 2022

Mike Rodd and Anne Husar met with Matthew Symonds and the new National Boating Officer, Eleanor Bridgwood-Hill, on Wednesday 24th August for their regular catch-up meeting.  Key issues at this session were… The boat licence increase – CRT are predicting a £7m shortfall but assured us that the published winter programme would go ahead in […]

CRT launches first ‘BOATER CENSUS’

The Canal & River Trust is launching the first ever Boater Census and is asking every boat licence holder to take part and help paint a picture of who boats on the charity’s waterways. The Boater Census has been designed with input from boater representatives on the Trust’s Council to help understand the different needs […]

Energy support scheme.

The Government’s much publicised £400 Energy Support Scheme has so far not been available to boaters or other off grid users. It is administered though the energy providers. If you have no domestic electricity or gas supply, then you don’t get it. There has been a campaign to include off-grid households.  It is obviously discriminatory […]

Messing about on the … Mon & Brec

Mike Rodd contemplates future CRT funding, BSS examinations and ‘composite’ lock-gates during an extended cruise. How good it was to have another real meeting at Alvechurch, even if a few folk couldn’t make it – damn nuisance this boating! Good to see the pub flourishing and many boats moving. But strangely on the K&A we are […]

A focus on BSS (and our forgotten anniversary!)

A focus on BSS (and our forgotten anniversary!) The extended period of hot, dry weather has continued and, as predicted in the last issue, the more vulnerable canals are now seeing closures due to water shortages – particularly the Peak Forest and Macclesfield canals. Helen Hutt and Mark Tizard both comment on the lack of […]

Grass cutting update

Grass cutting update In April’s NABO News, we set the scene for CRT’s mowing plans for this summer. So how is it going? Well it is clear that not all is well. The only really good point is that there are a very great number of wild flowers on the towpath fringes.In an unprecedented admission, […]