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Any care charity has the option of not providing the care if it can't achieve the standard - CRT don't have that option - they don't just have to meet statutory requirements, they have statutory duties. There is a difference between holding CRT to account and "being on their case" - one frequent FOI user was found to be vexatious and CRT no longer have to comply with their requests. Those who want CRT to improve (and that's probably most of us) should pick their battles, not just try and make CRT's life difficult.

Dealing with ridiculous FOI requests must waste loads of money that could possibly fix a paddle or two.

Tixall Wide this evening.

This is just the stern end of the butty Achilles, now going backwards. Achilles was cut by Roger Farrington in about 2015 amid much concern from historic boat enthusiasts that yet another of the few remaining full length butties had been lost. I see this displays the name of the original boat. At the time it was cut I thought it would be more appropriate for the front end, which is most of the original boat, to carry the name Achilles, and the back end should be named Achilles Heel.

They were in operation on Czech waterways until about twenty-five years ago. One is preserved in the Berlin Harbour Museum, but it proved a little difficult to photograph, so this is the stern in 1996. You can just make out that there is a port and starboard wheel cover, so steering could have been by varying wheel rotation or speed. There is a rudder as well. The second photo shows one working on the Elbe at Dresden, photo from https://www.der-lustige-modellbauer.com/t29821-heckrad-dampfer-friedrich-der-bn-alles-unbekannt

Yep. Only fair for all boats mooring on the towpath to pay my proposed towpath mooring fee. Whether or not they have a home mooring somewhere else. The point is to correct the inherent unfairness and at the same time, raise funds for maintenance of the waterways. Heavy going, wasn't it!!

"When we use the canals we might damage them, so we're going to stay put and get in the way of people who do want to use them" Not moving to avoid wear and tear on the system defeats the very point of having a canal system

Yes I read it - non-story the Daily Mail of the canal world. I'm also fed up with the CRT baiters in this forum. We're soon going to have a fight for the survival of the canal system and all some people want to do is pick holes whilst the whole edifice (the canals,not those running them) collapses. There you go, battle line drawn.

My personal view of the NBTA is that I'm pretty sure they have a fair proportion of members who genuinely need their help and are trying to boat within the law. No doubt there are plenty of the alternatives, but that's true of any association. All the grief to do with non moving CCers, and most of the arguments, are due to the fact that CRT and the NBTA are trying to deal with symptoms, not causes, which are out of their control. And so there simply are no solutions, because nobody is looking at the root cause of the problems, nor does anyone have any intention of doing so. People need somewhere to live, and want to do it where they have work, family or friends. Until someone decides to sort that out, our little waterways problems aren't going to get solved. A few quid in CRTs coffers is possibly the best they can hope for.

Boat owners say their traditional way of life could be wiped out leaving them homeless if the Canal and River Trust presses ahead with plans to increasing prices to live off the grid by up to 75%. That's the bit that always get's me. Most of them have only been living on boats for a couple of years but somehow it's their "traditional way of life". 🤣

That's where the cafe boat (Moonraker?) used to be - I last saw it in Lincoln. My favourite mooring in Slawit right next to bakery, brewery and dog walks and handy for the best pub, the Commercial.

Howdy all We're out on the cut again and enjoying the sunshine we were gifted today. Checked my posts and saw that 5 years ago we shared some photos from our canal mini-moon, so we will have to recreate it tomorrow as our anniversary is next week! Leaving Mercia in the morning for Shardlow, then back again tomorrow. Did the opposite on Wednesday heading down to Branston pools, but the river was shut so we turned around to head back this way. If you spot Penelope given us a shout and a wave! Its so nice to see so many familiar names on the forum, we hope you're all doing really well. ❤️

I'm knackered, so haven't run anywhere for years!