Monday 13 May 2013

Canal and River Trust's first major boating consultation: Lies or incompetence?

The recent CRT response to the SE Moorings Consultation contains for me a damning admission. CRT apparently do not consistently record what their customers tell them. For old hands like me this is actually no surprise whatsoever. It is the way BW worked for years and seemingly CRT are going to carry on the same way. Admitting the failing so publically is however new!

On the one hand they claimed to be receiving numerous 'complaints' about difficulties mooring, but it seems none of these complaints were formally recorded in their complaints system or anywhere else. Understandably this situation meant that NABO and others have felt obliged to run a coach and horses through the consultation process. Taken at its worst the whole process is based on what anyone else would call hearsay. Some are accusing CRT of outright lies. Narrowboatworld sets out the details here, in much the the same terms as I understand it.