No-go on the Leeds & Liverpool?

THIS year I decided to travel to Skipton on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal to see the Tour de France cycle race, writes Roger Saya.

The Wigan Flight was hard but managed it even though I asked if any help could be offered to a disabled boater, but I was informed that I was 'on my own'. All was okay until running the gauntlet of drunks and weed smokers under the bridges between Blackburn, Burnley and Nelson.

Boat stolen

Then my boat was stolen on the 7th June, ransacked and then used as a fire boat. She was totally destroyed.

CaRT have not been helpful, no warning given about how dangerous this stretch of the Leeds & Liverpool is. The people said that they are not aware of any problems in these areas, the police know and the fire service know, the insurance companies also know, why not CaRT?

No-go area

And now I read in the news on this site that Skipton is also a no-go area, what is going on, no patrols, rubbish in the water, weeds, offside foliage overgrown, I asked if anyone had seen a clean-up boat like the Water Witch, to be told 'not seen anything like that for years'.

The canal in parts looks derelict, so people assume that it is and do what they like. These people need to be caught and prosecuted to stop the escalation of attacks on our persons and property.

We need to re establish how important the canals are to the local communities, get some pride and involvement locally and most importantly CaRT to ask us the boaters what we want instead of telling us all is well on the waterways.