I SAW the antiques programme on television yesterday [Wednesday] that included a visit by one of the dealers to the Anderton Boat Lift that once again showed that Canal & River Trust just cannot stop exaggerating its figures, writes T Lang.

The manager calmly told the antiques dealer that '100 boats a day use the lift', yet I have now used the lift three times, and each time I have download the list of times available and this clearly shows eight down and eight up for each day, that with two boats using the lift each time (though with two of my trips I was the only boat) equates to an absolute maximum of 32 boats a day, and that of course dos not include wide beams, that would cut the figure.

Own experience

On my own experience based on mooring at the bottom of the lift for a couple of days, one day there were 12 boats and the next I counted seven using the lift.  With a fellow regular user telling me sometimes there are none.

But the nation was told told by the Canal & River Trust representative there were 100 boats a day! We can only be thankful he was not asked how many visitors!