Save Our Elsans

BEING a self-confessed newby to the narrowboat game, Mr Fellowes has probably yet to experience the trials and tribulations of winter living aboard a narrowboat, yet he believes we should all be compelled to do things 'his way' based upon nothing more than his seasonally limited experience,writes Dave Stead.

He is probably unaware of the challenges faced by pump-out users on frozen canals, where it can be difficult or even impossible to move to a pump-out point. This difficulty is not shared by cassette and composting toilet users who can, if necessary, put the cassette in the car or even on the back of a bicycle for transporting to the nearest disposal location.

Neither better than the other

Of course, more experienced boaters are aware that neither system is better than the other, both offering advantages and disadvantages which depend entirely on the way the boat is used. Indeed, some people use pump-out and have a cassette toilet especially for winter. This would be my preferred system if I had more space as it offers the best of both worlds, but there is no spare space in my 46ft of boat and there's no way I'm standing a cassette or composting toilet in the shower tray just to make room for a pump-out.

Mr Fellowes notes that he has seen cassette toilets emptied in hedge bottoms and states this as a reason for wishing to compel people to use a pump-out system. I saw a cassette dumped into the cut last year in Tring cutting and was disgusted. I have also seen someone with a pump-out system empty it directly into a river by means of a macerator pump on a length of hose.

Both liable to be abused

This benefit of pump-out perceived by Mr Fellowes here simply does not exist in the real world where both systems are liable to be abused.

I hope you publish this, and that Mr Fellowes thus becomes aware that like many arguments this one also has two sides each with its own set of firmly entrenched adherents and no 'right' answer. My own boat has been converted from sea toilet to cassette to pump-out and back to cassette by previous owners to suit their needs, and now has a composting toilet because I recycle my toilet waste into vegetables whenever possible.