Space for anglers to fish

Published: Monday, 27 November 2017

I was not at all surprised to learn that Canal & River Trust had conjured-up another rule without any of its much vaunted consultation, writes T. Lang.

For as your article says  'we now have no strong representation against the the ploys of Canal & River Trust', now that it has joined forces with the Inland Waterways Association and the National Boat Owners Association likes to keep its light under a bushel.

Strong representation

The anglers do have strong representation, well proven when it can stop a very important generating scheme at a Trent weir because a bank would leave its members too far up from the river!  Though in actual fact the height of the river would not alter, as the generating plant at Beeston on the Trent well shows.  So if it wants 16ft space between boats for its members, then CaRT will knuckle under.

I have often complained to CaRT about anglers on lock moorings—we all get them, but nothing is ever done.  I have suggested a specific notice telling no fishing at lock moorings, but it falls on deaf ears.  Not so the anglers, who get a notice telling boaters to leave space for them to fish.  And we can expect more 

Since British Waterways turned into a charity it believes it can now do exactly as it wants, that is proven time and time again, but alas usually to the detriment of boaters.