Money to spend

100 SANTA'S paddling from Eldonian Village to Bootle, yes it will make quite a spectacular sight, almost wish I could see it, writes Jenny MacGillivray.

Yes, I do understand that events like this draw the attention of the wider public to our canals and hopefully they will see them as something to be cherished rather than a linear rubbish dump.

Introduce boating

My children had canoes as young teenagers, so I do see them as a way to introduce young (or even not so young) people to boating. I still question the cost.

One hundred Santa outfits provided by the trust, that's the trust that hasn't the money to make inroads into the maintenance backlog! Of course there will also be the cost of the staff to supervise this, or will they just be withdrawn from their usual duties?

Licenced?

I wonder too how many will actually have a licence, or even know they need one, if they are members of the canoe association they will be covered, but the rest?

Perhaps it's just a fiendish plot, let's encourage loads of inexperienced canoeists onto the canals where they can be an additional hazard to narrowboaters, who will then be encouraged not to venture out of their moorings, then we won't need to repair all those pesky lock gates, after all they can carry canoes past them.