Victor: CaRT to charge boaters for using Anderton Boat Lift
Rectify the cause
Now that we are aware of the main reason for the continuing failures of Crabtree Swing Bridge on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal, as Sam Bennett told of the locking lever that would neither pull up nor push down because the lock bar was not in the gate frame.
The local publican telling him that overweight lorries taking a short cut over the bridge to an industrial estate were putting the mechanism under pressure, so surely we now have the answer?
A simple height bar stretched over the entrances that will allow nothing more than a normal delivery van under. As the bars are just ensuring the weight limit is met, they surely must be legal. And save a great many stoppages.
What a con
No, no, no, not dear CaRT this time, but the ever increasing use of internet sites—and now waterway sites—using that con of 'We respect you privacy' notices with the the option to 'Accept', before allowing you on to the site. Which means that you then give 'em carte-blanche to do everything but—distribute (sell) your information to all and sundry.
How on earth that 'protects' your privacy is not stated, as it obviously does the exact opposite!
Many, me included, refuse to play, so the outcome is that their greed is ill placed as it loses them—and their advertisers—readers.
But where
So before very long we will be allowed to go forth—on our boats that is, and stay overnight. Having missed, like many of you others, an early cruise, the problem now is where to go. Or to put it more bluntly where is it safe to go—and be able to get back without being stuck in a stoppage?
Gone are those days of yore when we could cruise anywhere, and with assistance cruise the entire Leeds & Liverpool, the Rochdale, the Huddersfield Narrow (twice) and the Peak Forest (numerous times). Would you dare risk it under the way the waterways are maintained today?
It's not really fun any more.
No Ribble Link
For those of you who want to attempt the Lancaster Canal via the Ribble Link, you can forget it until August, as Canal & River Trust have decided that now is the time to replace the river lock on the Leeds & Liverpool.
Another example of 'winter' maintenance in summer that stops boating. Of course we hear the 'coronavirus' card now being played, but that was well after winter...
Victor Swift