November 2018 - It has been almost eight years since David Cameron decided to get our national waterways off the government’s book by handing it over to a pseudo charity in what was meant to be the start of a mass handover of services the Tory government couldn’t sell off to private profiteers.

November 2018 - Hard on the heels of confirming that boaters will see their prompt payment discount halved from next April and that it is going ahead with hikes in licence fees the following year, including charging more for boats wider than seven feet, Canal & River Trust has also announced that 200 staff are now formally at risk of redundancy in the run-up to Christmas, reports Peter Underwood

October 2018 - In the past week or two Canal& River Trust’s response to questions about whether it has sold BWML and its 18 marinas has changed from ‘We’ll tell you when it happens’ to ‘all I can say is we are in final discussions with a preferred bidder and an announcement about the disposal will be made in due course’.

October 2018 - Boaters have long had serious doubts about the Canal & River Trust explanation of the cause of the Middlewich Breach early this year, but when one of them asked for the reports to substantiate its claim that it was caused by paddles left up on the lock above the breach site the charity – recently given an award for openness – reiterated its claims but refused to supply the documents.