A New Deal for boaters from the Canal and River Trust

Canal and River Trust has today announced a revolutionary new plan to re-invigorate private boating on the Inland Waterways of England and Wales.

A spokesperson for the Trust was heard to say: 

"For many years British Waterways neglected aspects of their the core responsibilities as a navigation authority and failed to give sufficient attention to it's most important group of fee paying customers. It is time that we improved on that. Private boatowners should be our most loyal supporters and our most valued customers and we have a duty of care towards them. 

"Recent policies of emphasising enforcement, restrictions and sanctions against boaters have been shown to be be counterproductive and a poor use of resources. We recognise that investing in better and more diverse physical facilities for all boaters is a more sustainable way to proceed in the future."

Facilities for cruising boats

The Trust plans to significantly improve facilities for cruising boats including;

• An extensive programme of dredging  visitor moorings to a depth of  one meter in order to ensure even the largest historical working boats can berth there to be completed by March 2015.
• Ensuring that that at least 80% of their refuse points have full recycling facilities available by March 2015.
• Adding over 100 new stand pipes or so called water points by September 2015
• Creating 30 new elsan disposal points by March 2016,
• A programme to create 100 new visitor mooring sites by September 2016

Priority will be given to those parts of the network where there are most boats without home moorings and complaints about congestion of existing facilities, including  London and the Kennet and Avon Canals.

Long term moorings

• All directly managed moorings fees will be frozen for two years pending the setting up of comprehensive maintenance schedules.
• All outstanding  repairs to CRT moorings are to be completed by April 2015.
• A commitment to provide at least 500 new low cost residential berths across the network, especially in urban areas.