Want to get it off your chest? Tell us all about it

February 2018 - Letters to the editor are a time-honoured feature of local and national newspapers – a natural home for the disgruntled and those who want to draw attention to issues others may not have noticed.

If you have a 'Disgusted of Cheltenham' lurking within, then email the editor – editor@thefloater.org – and we will run a collection of your missives when there are enough of them or when we need to fill some space.

We will give priority to the controversial, the funny and the well-written.

You need to supply a name and email address and we will normally publish the letter with your name but not your email. You are welcome to attach pictures if you think they ilustrate your point. The editor reserves the right to edit letters for clarity and length.

Here are a couple to kick you off.

Indigenous life on the Cut

Whilst C&RT have and are carrying out various studies of wild life on the inland waterways their appears to be little or no concern for the indigenous mammals that the canals were originally created as their habitats

I talk of the itinerant boater they tend be be two groups young ones that tend to congregate close to each other and more often than not close to urban activities

The other ones tend to be older and some display a head of white or grey hair others no hair at all these tend to move around more than the “youngsters” and often stop in isolated and quiet areas

I do feel that C&RT should concentrate their efforts in the preservation of this indigenous species and leave the other invasive wild life to someone else!

Brian D Jarrett

Bosses divorcing themselves from navigation?

Is it just me, or are C&RT's senior managers and directors becoming more and more remote from the issues of navigation and boating?

Their priorities seem to be the nonsense of general 'wellbeing' and my suspicion is that even as the spout all the buzz words they don't really believe there is any such effect – it is simply prepartion for their next bid for continued government funding.

You might say that is fair enough, if government are sufficiently enmeshed in their own propaganda as to buy the 'wellbeing' argument C&RT is helping everyone by extracting the cash we need to keep our waterways going.

The problem is that the 'wellbeing' of walkers, day trippers, cyclists and fishermen is becoming the proirity while navigation ands heritage take second place. Spend on winter maintenance is falling, not rising as C&RT tries to claim; important historical buildings are being put up for sale and even volunteers, struggling to restore abandoned canals find themselves hindered and micro-managed by C&RT.

The move to larger, more remote regions, run by managers with no waterways experience or understanding and a brief of promoting 'wellbeing' not navigation will only make things worse.

Douglas Sheridan

Photos: (1st) Water vole - moved to the canals after they were built for boats, (2nd) C&RT's expensive report on 'wellbeing' - is it becoming the bible for senior managers?