The Westminster Canal

On Tuesday 22 November, the future of the UK’s canals and waterways, with a particular focus on the 2,000 miles cared for and looked after by the Canal & River Trust charity, was debated in the House of Commons. Michael Fabricant, MP for Lichfield and chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Waterways, initiated […]

Public Authorities and the Public

Public Authorities and the Public Paul Monahan tries to analyse what’s wrong with CRT. I have frequent contact with several public bodies, notably the local council, the EA (flood relief, not navigation) and of course CRT. If I believed in reincarnation, I would think that I must have done something dreadful in a past life! […]

Waterways Ombudsman report

Waterways Ombudsman report The Waterways Ombudsman and the Waterways Ombudsman Committee have issued their Annual Reports for 2021/22. This is the third annual report of Sarah Daniel, the current Ombudsman. During the year, she received 63 enquiries, 51 of which were directly about CRT, and one concerned the Avon Navigation Trust. The others were about […]

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 […]

CRT South West Annual Public Meeting – Thursday 7th April

A not a very well-attended meeting 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. He also emphasised the significant amount of non-boater […]