Visitor moorings taken over

HERE on the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal virtually all the visitor moorings on this canal at the bridges plus permanent mooring sites are being used as winter moorings, writes Amy Dickerson.

I have no objection to vacant permanent moorings berths being offered, but I wonder where boats are supposed to moor through the winter months.

No consultation

There are plenty of boats on the canal through the winter. There has been no consultation on these changes, nor consideration to other boaters on this waterway. Before anyone starts screaming about continuous cruisers, they have a right to have somewhere to moor, as well as those of us with moorings.

To me this appears to be a blatant attempt to maximise income, without considering the wider implications of CART's actions. If you are someone who pays to moor over winter with the only benefit being not having to move every 14 days, please think again as to whether your actions are beneficial to those of us who use the waterways through the winter months. There are now less and less places to moor over winter, and especially so near local shops, etc.

Very few moorings

CART claims on its website that they use 50% of visitor moorings. It also clearly states that the remaining 50% are for visiting boats. Based on last year I estimate that they used between 60% to 75% of available space on visitor moorings leaving very few moorings for visiting boats.

The reason this was not too much of a problem was that it used about three or four visitor moorings spots on the canal. This year it is using 11 out of 13 visitor moorings. So in my opinion my argument that CART are simply in it for the money stands. In fact I can foresee over the next few months hard doorstep selling from enforcement teams in an attempt to maximise their income from visitor moorings.