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Category: Canal and River Trust
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Survey of boat owners’ views

The third survey of a third of CRT boat licence holders was carried out by an independent research consultant in March and April 2018. The survey has now covered all boaters who have held a boat licence in the last three years. In June, CRT published a summary of the last survey results, which included every new boat licence holder who had not been surveyed in 2016 or 2017. For comparison, the results included the average over the three-year survey cycle (3YA). 

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Category: NN Chairman's Column
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Getting to know you

Stella Ridgway looks back over five years of engagement with CRT.

As the CRT Annual General Meeting is coming up, I thought I would reflect on the last year and, indeed, the five years since I started attending these AGMs. The Trust started out with Richard Parry going to boaters’ forums, meeting with boaters’ organisations and generally engaging ... and then this engagement evaporated. While Richard still goes to events (I know he attends most Roving Traders’ Events), we in NABO have had a void in formal communications for the last two years. The only engagement is the six-monthly Regional User Forums, the National Advisory Groups (the Licensing NAG was recently disbanded) and the National User Forum. The reorganisation, announced last November, finally came into effect in June and it is proposed that there will be meetings held quarterly around the regions to give us a chance to get to know the new Regional Directors. It is hoped that they will be able to establish best practice with regards to having boaters represented on Regional Advisory Boards. NABO held an initial meeting with Jon Horsfall, the new Head of Customer Service, and has scheduled another meeting for September, so we hope to have met by the time you read this. The focus for this next meeting is ‘working together’, which seems to be a recurring theme at every meeting the Trust has; ‘using boaters’ knowledge’. But if the Trust wants boaters and boating organisations to help, it should acknowledge publicly the assistance and advice provided by NABO, other organisations and the Boaters’ Reps on Council. Boaters give their time and expertise through their representation on NAG and various sub-groups.

Read more: In the Chair September 2018

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Category: NN Editorials
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Consultations, breaches and closures

but Editor, Peter Fellows, also notes some wonderful weather and meaningful meetings

There’s been a lot happening on the waterways since the last NABO News in July. The summer’s weather has allowed marvellous cruising, but the high temperatures and prolonged drought have also caused problems for CRT’s water management. An article by Adam Comerford, CRT’s National Hydrology Manager, explains how the Trust has responded to maintain navigation on the majority of canals in the face of falling reservoir levels.

Read more: NABO News Editorial September 2018

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Category: Canal and River Trust
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Popular locks

CRT has released its annual boat movement report for 2017, which shows that the South East, North Wales & Borders and the West Midlands waterways remain the most popular cruising areas. The total recorded lockage in 2017 was 2.6% lower than in 2016, with the busiest site at the paired locks at Hillmorton on the Oxford Canal, with 9,552 lockages. New Marton Lock on the Llangollen Canal was the next busiest with 8,831 lockages in 2017, a decrease of 3% on the previous year. The least used lock was Lock 1, Belan, on the Montgomery Canal with 70 lockages. Full details can be found at https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/media/original/35365-annual-lockage-report-2017.pdf?v=939805

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