Victor: No proof for 'Wellbeing' strategy

IT WAS in September of last year that Cart launched its 'Waterways and Wellbeing' strategy backed by 123 pages of 'facts'.

But alas it has shot itself cleanly in the foot by the statement:

'The Trust acknowledges that it would be inadvisable to use these results to conclude that towpath use, boating or volunteering associated with our waterways improves personal wellbeing'.

So can anyone show me the sense in churning out pages and pages of bumf to promote it's 'Wellbeing' strategy then admitting there is no proof of it after all.

So it is promoting itself on a strategy of which it admits it has no proof.  How crazy is that?

And another

I have to admit that I find the never ending edicts from Cart certainly entertaining, especially as it now foretells the state of its waterways by 2025. It will have us believe, and here I must again quote:

No more than 10 unplanned closures lasting 48+ hours per year.

Anyone out there believe that? Not when it managed 11 stoppages in a week!  (Eleven waterways closed).

Last ditch attempt by EU to stop red diesel

So the Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled against HMRC over red diesel for the use in boats.

This has been going on ever since this country carried on against the EU by allowing the use of red diesel at a lower tax rate for leisure use in boats, but in a case that was launched last year, the EU argued that the UK should not allow red diesel to be used in this way but boaters should pay the full price as road diesel.

The EU court has ruled that the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has failed to fulfil its obligations under Council Directive 95/60/EC of 27 November 1995 on fiscal marking of gas oils and kerosene (OJ 1995 L 291, p. 46)'.

This means that as the UK remains subject to the Fuel Marker Directive, it must bring its practices into line with this ruling.

No date has been fixed when the UK will adjust its practices, for of course there is still the matter of Brexit, when hopefully boaters will be out of the hands of the EU and its rulings for ever.

Victor Swift