David: Felled trees

FELLED trees blocking the canal are a fairly frequent occurrence.

CaRT and their contractors are normally able to clear them within 24 hours.

However I have noticed this year that the clearance process is not always complete and a large chunk of tree is left partly blocking the canal.

I noticed a couple of these on the Caldon earlier in the year and more recently one on the Llangollen, in the narrow section north of Trevor.

As the pictures show the abandoned tree trunk blocks about a third of the width of the canal, which is very narrow at this point and further compromised by the overgrowth of offside vegetation.

I cannot understand why the trunk is left in this way; surely it would be no more difficult to cut it nearer the bank and leave the canal clear.

Missing fenders

The recent problem of a lifted gate on Devizes flight was blamed on a boat which had no bow fender getting caught in the vertical gaps between the planking on the top gate.

This highlights something that I have been noticing more and more over the last couple of years; an increasing number of boats lack one or both fenders, though a missing bow fender is more common. This seems to be a particular problem with the continuous moorer fraternity, but perhaps they would argue that as they never go anywhere, they don't need fenders.

I have always understood that having effective fenders was a condition of having a licence, so what we have here is an enforcement problem which would not be difficult to deal with; no fender, no licence.

David Hymers