Never mind 'the worst month so far this year with 35 stoppages...', writes Frank Auffet.
This is the worst year for me since I began boating over 40 years ago.
I’m sure there are many others like me, frustrated and annoyed with the current state of the waterways. Under such dismal management, where can you go and how can you plan a summer cruise?
Perhaps the scariest of all will we be able to get back to base in autumn? It’s a disgrace!
With a mooring in West Yorkshire we were already on the back foot in late April. The Huddersfield Narrow closed, the Rochdale closed and the Leeds & Liverpool closed, leaving only one route south that included the notoriously unreliable Vazons Bridge at Keadby.
It wasn’t like this before C&RT took control. Under British Waterways we never thought about being held up by a long term stoppage and we had choices of which canal to use to cross the Pennines.
Now there’s long stoppages on the Macclesfield, the South Stratford, Worcester & Birmingham at Tardebigge and the Grand Union at Brentford. Add paddle failures, fallen trees and broken down swing bridges. What happened to CRT’s ‘Boaters Promise’ or the ‘Paddle Pledge’?
Let’s hope the new CEO gets a grip of this, remembers C&RT are a navigation authority and brings back pre-emptive maintenance.
And before the C&RT apologists take to bleating the same old 'No Money' excuse, may I remind them that the cost of a fixing an issue before it becomes a major problem is probably a lot less than waiting until it fails completely and causes a longer than necessary stoppage.
Please note: There will be no usual Tuesday updates or any on Wednesday either, owing to unforeseen circumstances—Editor.