CaRT wasting money on irrevelant items

Published: Thursday, 15 June 2017

I THINK the correspondent who states that boaters should not moan because CaRT has no money for maintenance has missed the most fundamental point about what boaters are moaning about. (Re: CaRT don't have the money) writes Keith Gudgin.

8 ducks at playIt's not just that CaRT are not maintaining the waterways but that they are wasting so much money on irrelevant items like upgrading cycle paths, writing stupid poetry on lock gates, filling the canals with weeds and sausages, turning the waterways into livestock havens for insects and mink etc., writing stupid signs on the towpaths for ducks, hanging signs that tell walkers where they are. For an idea of CaRTs thinking pattern just remember that they now want to let canoeists into tunnels unsupervised.

CaRT's main duty

Apart from anglers small contribution boaters are the only group who pay an annual fee to CaRT to use the waterways, canoeists don't pay, cyclists don't pay, walkers don't pay. Boaters are justified in complaining about all the money CaRT spends on these irrelevant groups to the detriment of the infrastructure which after all is CaRTs main duty.

Adderley369I've just done the Shroppie, as readers will know I placed a picture of a lock landing wired off. I have since been told it has been wired off for four years. It wasn't the only one either. This all makes it dangerous for single handed boaters to use the canals, even though they pay as others do. CaRT can find money for irrelevant environmental projects but can't even repair a lock landing to make the area safe for their paying customers.

Health & safety waste

When it comes to work being done, health and safety for the workforce goes way over the top, When I was at a lock that was being refurbished I thought the safety precautions were far too elaborate for what was being achieved. Big savings could be made here by the application of a little common sense.

Perhaps your correspondent is right when he says that CaRT don't have the money to do all the repairs needed but it appears that they have plenty of money to waste while the infrastructure just falls apart. If they didn't waste so much money then perhaps the leaks wouldn't waste so much water.