The Floater July 2017

July 2017 - Canal & River Trust tells us at every opportunity that it owns 2,000 miles of waterways – but there's more, lots more, as Peter Underwood has been learning.

July 2017 - C&RT's launch of of its Annual Report on 24 July, some 12 weeks after its financial year end, is a drab affair. In previous years we have been treated to web pages filled with multicoloured charts and graphs.

July 2017 - A tendency for the Canal & River Trust to blame anything other than poor maintenance for stoppages on the canal system has not gone unnoticed by boaters, as Peter Underwood reports.

July 2017 - In one of the few pieces of positive news to come from the Lancaster Canal it seems the Canal & River Trust has agreed to Colin Ogden and his fast-growing Owd Lanky Boaters Group adopting an abandoned lock flight, Peter Underwood reports.

July 2017 - Plans for a multi-million pound development in Bolton have brought the founder of the Manchester Bolton and Bury Canal Society into conflict with its current chair – as Peter Underwood reports.

July 2017 - Canal & River Trust's fifth birthday has come and gone with no fanfare. Even C&RT's marketing department, never short of a spurious story on such occasions, has remained silent. No self congratulation or stories with titles such as 'Our achievements - year by year'.

July 2017 - Developers planning to put no fewer than 80 flats on a canalside site in central Birmingham may find themselves up against a coalition of boaters and music fans, Peter Underwood reports.

July 2017 - A Canal & River Trust London Mooring Ranger is proposing new restrictions that may see current mooring spaces removed on the lower part of the River Lea, writes Alec Wood.

July 2017 - The Canal & River Trust's consultation on changes in boat licensing has just completed it's second stage and is already being condemned as misleading and unfair by liveaboard boaters although the Trust and its IWA allies seem happy, as Peter Underwood reports.

July 2017 - Boater Paul Morris, who describes himself as Captain of LifeAfloat and gives his address as Coventry Canal, West Midlands, has launched a website designed to facilitate and encourage the rental of liveaboard boats and even buying boats to let them out, as Peter Underwood reports.

July 2017 - Canal & River Trust has confirmed that its maintenance backlog, as measured by the number of outstanding defects, rose by 15 per cent in its last financial year, Allan Richards reports.

July 2017 - Last year and this has seen the Environment Agency attempting to crack down on overstaying boats using public mooring sites on the Thames and the National Bargee Travellers' Association is attempting to work out what's happening, as Alec Wood reports.

July 2017 - Lost in the battle of wills between North West Waterways Manager Chantelle Seaborn and those like Colin Ogden, who want to see swift restoration of the Lancaster Canal's Northern Reaches are the existing volunteers of the Lancaster Canal Trust, who find themselves without a role, as P

July 2017 - The minutes of a meeting about facilties for boaters in London, between a National Bargee Travellers delegation led by Marcus Trower and a group led by Matthew Symonds, C&RT's boating strategy and engagement manager have finally emerged three months later, as Peter Underwood repor

July 2017 - Sometimes the disconnect between authoritarian organisations and real life – and even the decisions of other parts of the same organisation – are a little bizarre, as Peter Underwood reports.

July 2017 - Having previously offered to put our Allan Richards in contact with a member of a working group set up to look at the results of the 2016 Boat Owners’ Survey, Canal & River Trust now says it is unable to provide that persons name.

July 2017 - North West Waterways Manager Chantelle Seaborn and the recently revived Lancaster Canal Regeneration Partnership have come up with their latest response to the runaway success of Colin Ogden and his 1,000 strong Owd Lanky Boaters Group, as Peter Underwood reports.

July 2017 - The Montgomery Canal is, perhaps, one of the most remote canals with real potential as a tourist success. Sadly it remains unrestored for much of it's length there are those trying to raise its profile as Alec Wood reports.