Harecastle rules will kill hire boating

Published: Friday, 23 October 2020

IT DID NOT say in the article if it was one boat at a time or a batch of boats [through Harecastle Tunnel], writes Alan Baker.

If it is a batch of boats there is no way they would be able to clear the tunnel in one hour.

harecastle1Limits the number

If only one boat at a time then that limits the number that can pass through in a day to two each way (8am, 9am, 10am, 11am).

I think this shows that those running CaRT from their desks don't have a clue how the waterways work.  These rules will kill hire boating on this length of the canal.  The hire boat industry will lose far more than CaRT saves in removing tunnel keepers.

Health & Safety

I think the people who've implemented this have not looked at the tunnel keepers' logs, and also have not put it to Health and Safety.

If they have, both lots of managers should be given their cards and their salaries used to re-employ the tunnel keepers.

In all my years of boating I can't remember a time when there wasn't a queue to go through the tunnel.