Wales and the South West On 20th October, I attended the CRT Wales User Forum, with six other users and three CRT folk, but unfortunately the Regional Director, Mark Evans, was down with another dose of Covid! Most of the meeting was taken up with long presentations about all the wonderful things CRT and others […]

The Broads and canals – they are not the same … Mark Tizard is getting used to his new boating environment. Hire craft on the Broads seem to have got larger and ever more sophisticated, with two decks. I wonder if the hire market has peaked, with prices ranging from £1300 to £3300 a week, […]

South West and Wales A not very well-attended meeting of the South West Users’ Group, with only some 24 folk present (including numerous CRT people) but still a useful and well-structured session. The Regional Director, Mark Evans, gave a slick summary of the past year and, of course, highlighted the difficulties caused by the storms etc. […]

The Commonwealth Games are coming to Birmingham this summer and there are many events taking place. As part of the Birmingham 2022 Festival, celebrating the people, history and stories of our canals, CRT, the Birmingham Canal Navigations Society (BCNS ) and the IWA are organising a parade of boats on the weekend of 24th – 26th […]

Wales & South West A very busy few months for CRT on both the K&A and the Mon & Brec, with some planned winter work having to be re-scheduled when a massive breach in the K&A occurred at the eastern end. This required an extensive operation to re-establish the bank, and also to create an […]

This summer, our 250-mile cruise between June and October has been entirely within the CRT West Midlands Region. When we arrived in Birmingham, we moored on a finger mooring in Cambrian Basin. We are Waterside Mooring customers who notified CRT of our intention to be away from the mooring for more than 30 days and […]

Peter Braybrook reports Since the last Council meeting, I attended the WM Regional Forum on 25th May. I have commented to Matthew Symonds about the constant spin that boaters only pay a fifth of the cost of canal upkeep. I have noticed that there are more infrastructure failures than ever – Hillmorton locks and Factory locks […]

South West Regional report I attended the meeting of the non-Wales part of the Wales and South West Region chaired by David Hagg, who leads the South West Regional Advisory Board. As is usual now, the concentration was on everything non-boating, but fortunately Ed Helps, a member of the Board and CEO of ABC, did […]

Howard reports from the North East I took part in a Zoom forum in January, which is the first that the Y&NE have held. It was well attended with 42 participants, including a number of CRT managers. These managers were a mix of local and national, and included: Sean McGinley, Regional Director Yorks and North […]

Not a great deal to report, as all our movements are currently restricted to only the strictly necessary by the Covid regulations. But in line with Government’s instructions on daily exercise and CRT’s desire that that exercise should take place on the towpaths, they certainly appear to be very busy with runners and cyclists, as […]