The Canal & River Trust’s annual national boat count shows that licence compliance on its waterways remains high with 96.2% of boaters holding a valid licence (2019: 96.4%).  This is the fourth highest compliance figure in the last 10 years and is the eleventh successive year with evasion below 5%.

The national boat count sees the Trust’s teams physically recording boats on every stretch of waterway to check if they are correctly licensed.  The COVID-19 restrictions meant they were unable to access some marinas and stretches of canal, while flooding and high-water levels have also prevented access to some rivers to obtain sightings.  This will likely explain a reduction in the overall number of boats sighted on the waterways this year with 33,672 boats sighted across England & Wales, down 1,568 boats on 2018/19.  The numbers of boats sighted on waters where Trust licences are required also reduced by 323 to 31,110.  In comparison, the Trust’s licence system showed that 34,435 boats held valid licences at 31 March 2020, a slight uplift on the previous year (31 March 2019: 34,367).

You can read about it here.

A report from boaters rep, Dave Mendes de Costa.

Yesterday the boater representatives on the CRT Council met with Matthew Symmonds (National Boating Manager). Many thanks to everyone who sent me their thoughts. As expected, the main area of discussion was around Covid-19. The tone was positive, there seems to be a desire to support people, but through individual arrangements rather than blanket measures. So the main message is: If you need support, contact CRT immediately on 0303 040 4040.

Lockage Report

CRT has published the annual lockage ranking for 2019 for those locks that are fitted with telemetry. The five most-used locks were in the West Midlands and North West Regions, as was the least-used lock.

CRT have said this tonight 23 March

Following the most recent announcement from the Prime Minister regarding the UK’s response to the coronavirus crisis, we are asking leisure boaters to stop all non-essential travel. As a result, and to help those who live-aboard (along with those who would need to travel to their boat in order to move it) we are suspending the requirement to move every 14 days. The suspension will be kept under review in line with revised government guidance, applying initially until 14 April.

We ask everyone to be considerate and make sure at least a minimal amount of essential movement is maintained to keep vital boater facilities and services accessible to those that need them. We will continue to maintain boater facilities and pump out cards are available from our online shop. (We will be urgently reviewing the implications for face-to-face sale of pump out cards and facilities keys from our public offices).

With immediate effect NABO recommends that cruising liveaboard members find a safe mooring with reasonable access to services and supplies and hunker down. Non liveaboard boaters should not visit their boats unless advised it’s safe to do so.

There are no instructions on BSS examinations in the current advice from CRT. If yours is due, talk to the license office and get their guidance. We are pressing for examinations to be supended for the critical period and will keep you advised. 

Listen out for further Government and/or CRT announcements.Their web site is here

Stay safe out there.