Denied access to Gloucester

I have just received a telephone call (Wednesday afternoon) from a boater who has been denied access to Gloucester on his boat, writes Amy Dickerson.

All boats are being denied access into Gloucester because of a lack of moorings. I bet the two boats that have been moored in Gloucester (since November 2013) are still moored on the pontoon behind the lightship.

Hempstead Bridge

Boaters are being refused passage through Hempstead Bridge. No notice of this has been published and no emails sent out about this stoppage. Another example of boaters being treated as second class citizens by CaRT. My question is why boaters could not have been told about this stoppage whilst passing through bridges on route to Gloucester?

On such a wide canal there is no reason why boats cannot moor alongside one another more than two abreast. This surely would have solved the problem. Many visiting boaters go to Gloucester to shop at Sainsbury's since they can moor outside the supermarket.

CaRT really need to get some imagination from somewhere on managing the waterways to the benefit of boaters instead of creating obstacles all the time for boaters.