Canal & River Trust caused sale

Published: Monday, 01 October 2018

AFTER 10 years of narrowboating Canal & River Trust has caused me to give it up, writes Brian Hawkins.

With the reason very simple indeed, I was stuck on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal at Rodley by the closures of the locks by the trust.

Stranded by the closures

My wife and I are involved in education and together with extra curricular activities means our only time of any duration to use the boat is in August, but this time we were stranded by the closures, limited to one day's cruising.

But prior to this, the May holiday also proved impossible as we were caught out by the numerous bridge failures, that together with yet another closure meant us leaving the boat and retrieving it later.  But the August disappointment was the final straw and over the week-end we very reluctantly sold the boat. The broker told us that there is an abundance of boats being offered for sale by owners in a similar position, not only on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal but the Rochdale Canal and Huddersfield Narrow Canal, all suffering many and long closures, I believe mostly through poor (or non-existent) water management.

Though we were prepared to move the boat to a different mooring, there was nowhere, as all the northern canals  were affected by closures.  It is patently clear that the standard of maintenance and the resulting waste of water by leakage means that this year's problems will become a regular feature, so I see no future in boating on this area of the system

But I would like to thank narrowboatworld for including my 'efforts' for the past 10 years, and perhaps should remark that another publication refused! Keep up the good work by relating the facts and not the propaganda.