Anglers get winter 'mooring' rights!

UNLIKE boaters who now have no strong representation against the the ploys of Canal & River Trust, anglers have very strong representation indeed in the Angling Trust.

With the increase in continuous cruisers, good winter moorings are becoming ever harder to find, not helped by those continuous moorers who take up 48 hours mooring for months on end, as on Sawley Cut, but it is to get worse with a change of rule from CaRT.

Leave 16ft

It has given in to the demands of the anglers by serving notice on the Lancaster Canal that boaters must leave at least a 16ft gap between their boats on winter moorings to allow anglers to fish!  Though CaRT often boasts of its consultations before making any changes, there has been no consultation whatsoever, the first the boaters knew of the new rule was the appearance of notices along favourite moorings stating that in future the stated space must be left between every moored boat to allow anglers to fish.

Jed Thornley who told us of this new ploy thought it was a joke, but soon discovered it was not, being told by a CaRT spokesman that space had to be left for anglers to fish on moorings that were popular fishing areas.

Depending on the length of the boats, this means that overall there will have to be a drastic reduction in the number of boats that can now be accommodated, and when on its own winter moorings, ultimately losing money for the Trust.

Gets worse

But it gets worse, for the notice, that we repeat below, states that should there be a match held at the winter moorings, all the boats will have to move!  But of course whoever thought of this, again without any consultation, obviously had not the sense to realise that a boater could be away somewhere abroad enjoying a bit of sunshine, or had to return to his/her family for some reason or other?   Do the anglers then move the boat? And what when lack of dredging means there is nowhere locally to move the boats to.

But worse still, is CaRT about to introduce this new rule system wide?

The rule:

If the Winter Mooring Site is in a location regularly used by anglers, you should leave at least 5m between your boat and the next one along to allow space for fishing. You must be prepared to move temporarily to facilitate match pegging.