The Floater October 2017

October 2017 - A hundred years or more ago, boats on our inland waterways were often built on the bank, parallel to the cut, and launched sideways into to water.

October 2017 - Within the space of a few days the Canal & River Trust has hiked boat licences, launched the third stage of its consultation on boat licences and now published it's London Mooring Strategy for yet another complex consultation.

October 2017 - Many boaters and other observers have long been of the opinion that the Canal & River Trust is not serious about reopening the Northern Reaches of the Lancaster Canal and has been embarrassed by the enthusiasm and commitment of local boaters into a pretence of co-operation.

October 2017 - The Canal & River Trust press release boasted in capital letters 'CHARITY SPENDS £38MILLION TO KEEP YOUR MUCH-LOVED WATERWAYS FLOWING'.

October 2017 - Having not got what it wanted from stage 1 and 2 of its licence consultation, C&RT seems hell bent on pressing on regardless – perhaps the reason it parted company with the 'independent charity', Involve, who it had engaged to run all three stages of the consultation.

October 2017 - With licence fees set to rise three per cent, it seems boaters have presented Canal & River Trust with a surprisingly united front in response to what many see as a completely unnecessary consultation on licence fees.

October 2017 - With hundreds of new boaters every year and many of them inexperienced and young – and in or around London - it is, perhaps, inevitable that many of them need the skills of experienced tradespeople writes Peter Underwood.

October 2017 - While many boaters complain about Canal & River Trust's alleged 'health and safety culture' it seems it may be attempting to distance itself from minimum safety standards set by British Waterways more than a decade ago, as Allan Richards has discovered.

October 2017 - Canal & River Trust is cautiously non-committal about a major fish kill on the Grand Union canal, despite claims from local anglers that a nearby dredging operation by the Trust is to blame, but the incident has launched top level investigations at the Trust, as Peter Underwood

October 2017 - In what C&RT describes as the largest movement of historic boats ever 11 historic vessels will be lifted from the canal basin at the Ellesmere Port waterways museum and placed in a new dry store – but nobody knows how many will survive intact, writes Peter Underwood.

October 2017 - Something C&RT's spin doctors describe as “The world’s first canal comic book” commissioned by the Lancaster Canal Regeneration Partnership (LCRP), with £15,000 of Arts Council cash, is to be launched at the Lakes International Comic Arts Festival in Kendal this October, report

October 2017 - An attack by the local mayor in Devizes aimed at boaters on the Kennet and Avon Canal, in which he demanded Wiltshire Council and the Canal & River Trust remove what he describes as 'unlicensed boats' from the Wharf in Devizes has prompted a demand for a public apology, as Pete

October 2017 - The Canal & River Trust hit on the idea of awards to encourage volunteers, contractors and their own staff some years ago and the winners of the 2017 Living Waterways Awards were announced at a 'gala ceremony' in Birmingham, writes Peter Underwood

October 2017 - As the point approaches when the Canal & River Trust could lose much or all of its Government funding – currently a quarter of its income – it is setting out to prove to politicians that it has a real value to society and that there are genuine financial reasons to keep funding