The Floater March 2017

March 2017 - It seems boaters on Environment Agency waters in Eastern England are having to go back the campaigning cruises of the 1950s in an attempt to shame the Agency into keeping navigations navigable, Peter Underwood reports.

The latest is an attempt to navigate the Old Bedford River by boaters from Project Hereward – although it is not the first.

March 2017 - The newly appointed spin doctor to the Lancaster Canal Partnership has been earning her £250 per day fees with newspaper and TV stories about what is claimed to be a new 'Towpath Trail' but all is not as it seems, as the Floater has discovered.

The press release boasts:
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“CUMBRIA’S LOST CANAL REDISCOVERED – NEW £184,000 TOWPATH TRAIL ANNOUNCED

“Cumbria’s forgotten canal is to be rediscovered with the construction of a new £184,000 towpath trail from Kendal to Natland, thanks to members of the Lancaster Canal Regeneration Partnership.

March 2017 - By Peter Underwood

At least once a month we like to pay tribute to the work of the Canal & River Trust's press office and pass on to Floater readers the things the Trust would like you to know.

Some good news from the Caldon

A former canal wharf at Froghall Basin on the Caldon Canal in Staffordshire is being brought back to life, thanks to Café owner Emma Atkinson, who saw the potential of converting the attractive heritage building into a café and gift shop, with holiday accommodation for rent upstairs.

March 2017 - Allan Richards has been examining some recent developments within the Canal & River Trust's senior management and the changes have led him to ask whether C&RT will move its HQ to Birmingham?

With C&RT's predecessor, British Waterways, moving its head office from Watford in London to Milton Keynes just a few years ago, could there now be a second move - from Milton Keynes to centre of the canal network - Birmingham.

March 2017 - Peter Underwood has been looking at a canal which is being blocked at both ends by C&RT's insistence on winter closures.

Few canals have had as much spent on them as the 200 year old Leeds and Liverpool with major urban developments at either end involving millions of pounds in public and private money.

March 2017 - Allan Richards has been taking a look at the management costs of the National Trust and the Canal & River Trust and the ever-expanding top management of C&RT gives rise to some serious questions

Leaving aside its 11 trustees, why does Canal & River Trust (C&RT) have nine highly paid executive directors? In 2012, it only had six.

Now it has three more but it is difficult to see what has changed that increases the need for executive directors with remuneration packages ranging from over £100,000 to more than £200,000.

March 2017 - By Peter Underwood

There is no shortage of boaters who fancy stretching their boundaries and tackling the many locks leading to and from the Standedge Tunnel – but are a little nervous of the sheer amount of work and the unknown.

March 2017 - By Peter Underwood

The National Bargee Travellers Association is keeping up the pressure on the Canal & River Trust on several fronts – and the latest is what they see as the gentrification of the canals in London. Peter Underwood has tidied up the press release.

The area in question are former public moorings on an historic wharf right next to the gas works (Corbridge Crescent) in Tower Hamlets that are set to be made into private leisure moorings as part of “regeneration” of the area.

March 2017 - Allan Richards looks at how C&RT ended up with an Appeal Court decision that questions its approach to Continuous cruisers.

Three Law Lords have upheld an appeal by boater Mathew Jones in a Section 8 case. Lord Justice Jackson, Lord Justice McCombe and Lord Justice Sales found that a County Court Judge was wrong in striking out a number of paragraphs in Mr Jones defence based on Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR).

March 2017 - Peter Underwood has been looking at boaters' response to C&RT plans to narrow a Birmingham canal tunnel to make more space on the towpath.

There has been an overwhelming rejection by boaters of plans to narrow the canal through Birmingham's Edgbaston tunnel in order to widen the towpath for cyclists and pedestrians.

March 2017 - Allan Richards has kept tabs on the many and various claims made by C&RT for the numbers of paying 'Friends' recruited for some years – and it seems there is still a glaring disparity as it attempts to cloak its failures.

C&RT has told its trustees that that it will not meet this year’s revised target of 22,500 ‘Friends’ by the end of March (Still not enough ‘Friends’ income for C&RT).