How stupid can it get?
CAN you believe, but Canal & River Trust have now upped its visitor number into the stratosphere—attempting to have people believe there are now 400,000,000 visitors to its waterways in a year!
When the Trust took over it reported a downturn in the number of visitors to its waterways, from 15 millions to 10 millions, that was just believable, always remembering they are fairly deserted in the winter months and in bad weather.
Cash from government
But the amount of cash it gets from the government relies to some extent on the popularity of the waterways, and with boaters only in the 30 thousands, the only way it could impress was by upping its visitor numbers, which it has done dramatically.
Very soon, backed by the Inland Waterways Association its one year visitors numbers had leaped thirty fold to 300 millions, though many users of the waterways tell us, and from our own experiences, there was no obvious increase in the number of visitors.
454 visitors every mile
Then early this year, again with no noticed increase in visitors, it went up another 60 millions, and as our Mick Fitzgibbons pointed out (The sky's the limit it) this meant there had to be 454 visitors on every mile of the waterways every day of the year! No doubt Mick will tell us the new number of visitor for every mile of waterway...
If this was not stupid enough, CaRT have now upped it again—another 40 millions a year making it 400 million people visiting its waterways, out of the entire population of England, Scotland and Wales of just over 64 millions!
The reality
Yesterday we moored opposite Red Hill Marina on the Soar, and during the eight hours we were there, according to CaRT's figures we should have seen around 4,000 visitors—there were exactly 11!
When we cruised the Four Counties Ring in April this year there was mile after mile out in the sticks on the Shropshire Union Canal where we never saw a soul, and on the embankment through Nantwich, only counted eight—in the middle of the day. And other boaters are telling us they experience exactly the same. The picture shows the towpath of the Shropshire Union—hardly one tramped by around 500 people every day!
How stupid can it get? Indeed. But can we believe anything CaRT tells us...?