Email: Sensible proposal

David Hymer's suggestion, in his column on 19th December, that mooring fees be abolished and that the revenue lost be made up by an increase in licence fees is the most sensible proposal I have heard yet in the discussion on continuous cruisers.

It has always puzzled me that those who use the canal system the most, continuous cruisers, are those who pay the least (licence dodgers excepted).

The issue of overstayers or 'continuous moorers' is a separate one. A boat with a home mooring can just as easily be guilty of overstaying as a continuous cruiser. However if the financial incentive to become a 'continuous moorer' was removed then I suspect many of those who really wish to stay in the same area would find a home mooring.

John Kerley