The Floater June 2017

June 2017 - Any boater who has used Liverpool's new canal link through the old docks and spent time in Salthouse Dock will appreciate what a special place it is - but by next year it might no longer be a World Heritage site, as Peter Underwood reports.

June 2017 - Many boaters have come across youngsters swimming in the canals, even jumping and diving into locks as hot weather draws them to the canalside – but it is a prospect that – rightly – makes Canal River Trust nervous, as Peter Underwood reports.

June 2017 - Peter Underwood reports on the Canal & River Trust's latest attempts to reduce the number of collisions and injuries involving cyclists on our towpaths – ranging from cut-out ‘sleeping policeman’ to spray on signs urging people to slow down to two new videos.

June 2017 - The operators of fuel boats – some of the only true working boats left on the waterways – are usually stoical types, accustomed to the problems of an old and creaking system – but sometimes it gets to them, as Peter Underwood reports.

June 2017 - Boaters notice that shortening visitor mooring times seems to be a knee-jerk response from Canal & River Trust and, to a lesser extent, British Waterways before them. As Peter Underwood explains, it is not particularly logical, but can boaters do anything to change it?

June 2017 - We do like to pass on some of the output of C&RT's team of public relations people and the Trust has been blowing its trumpet about East London and the Kennet and Avon, as Peter Underwood reports.

June 2017 - Canal & River Trust has denied that it holds any information relating to a working group it claims to have set up to look at the results of the 2016 Boat Owners’ Survey, Allan Richards reports

June 2017 - It seems fiction is the new approach to controlling boaters on London's waterways where a policy of making up legislation seems to rule in the sign-making department as Alec Wood reports.

June 2017 - It seems C&RT is simply not repairing the network as fast as it is falling apart – something many boaters suspect from their personal experience – Allan Richards has been crunching the numbers.

June 2017 - There is a big issue with the amount of litter discarded on towpaths, as any boater knows, and that is especially true in urban areas where C&RT has litter bins installed to encourage visitors to dispose of their rubbish properly.

June 2017 - There are signs that Canal & River Trust may be coming to terms with what is swiftly becoming the foremost organisation seeking to restore the Northern Reaches of the Lancaster Canal, Peter Underwood reports.

June 2017 - Government has been running a consultation on the use of red diesel, which closes on 30th June 2017 and it currently seems to treat all boaters as leisure users, ignoring the needs of liveaboards, Peter Underwood reports.

June 2017 - It cost Canal & River Trust half a million pounds to settle out of court with Ken Churchill after his boat sank in Lock 40 of the Bank Newton flight after snagging on a lock wall.

June 2017 - Just over two weeks ago, The Floater revealed that C&RT had sold the Mersey Bar Lightship for a fraction of its advertised price and was now the subject of a police investigation regarding theft of the vessel (Lightship 'Planet' sol

June 2017 - The Floater reaches 10-15,000 people most days with news about Britain's waterways – most of which won't be found in the commercial canal media, and certainly not from C&RT spin doctors – but it may be about to go out of business, reports Alec Wood.

June 2017 - A lottery grant of more than a third of a million pounds is being poured into a 12-month nature project to improve vulnerable wildlife habitats across 10 key sites totalling 400 hectares – a combined area greater than the City of London – by the Canal & River Trust, Alec Wood repo

June 2017 - C&RT's press release about its 2017 Boat Owners Survey places positive spin on the results but admits there is room for improvement. Instead of publishing the report on which the article is based, it says it will be published at a later date, Allan Richards reports.

June 2017 - A Freedom of Information Act request has revealed that C&RT has abandoned its long-term target of recruiting 100,000 Friends by 2022, Allan Richards reports.

June 2017 - Nearly a quarter of boaters remain dissatisfied with the Canal & River Trust's waterways and more than 20 per cent would not recommend them to others – Peter Underwood explores C&RT's claims about the 2017 Boat Owners survey.

June 2017 - For most boaters it would be a nightmare, sharing a long canal tunnel with canoeists in small, fragile shells, easily crushed by 20 tonnes of steel you are steering – but C&RT seems to think it is an acceptable risk as Peter Underwod reports.

June 2017 - In the middle of a major review of its licensing system C&RT is introducing a new licence in response to widespread criticism about the lack on control over boats rented out as homes – Peter Underwood takes a look.