Victor believes they are certainly at 'war'!

THERE is obviously something very drastic going on when a rowing club takes it on itself to grind off safety rails.

Especially those that allow anyone falling into the Lee & Stort Navigation to climb out, as is exactly what the Lea Rowing Club has done.

But the resulting publicity, complete with photograph of a man at work, soon brought it to official notice with both the Canal & River Trust and the Environmental Agency engaged, and the rowing club hastily arranging for its dangerous work to be rectified.

Many of us realise that there is a 'war' between boaters and rowers on that waterway—as alas there is on many others—with the rowing club cutting off the safety rails as boaters are obviously using them for mooring.

But to cut them off is the height of lunacy—putting lives at risk just so its rowers can have more water space.

Whoever was responsible for this action should be shown the door not only for putting lives at risk but for the resulting  criminal damage.

A wasted blue sign

The new blue sign on the Grand Union summit at Bulbourne is not the usual one for boats, but for vehicles, telling there was no parking, that was spotted by Howard Clarke.

It is obviously erected to deter those living on boats on the navigation nearby, but from the state of the ground it is not being of much use as it clearly allows them to get to their parking places.

Number plate recognition at Foxton

A planning application has been approved and the equipment ordered by Canal & River Trust to install ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) in the car park at Foxton Flight tells Rodney Hardwick.

Does this mean that these will be installed at all CaRT car parks?  So are visitors about to be charged for parking?

Well, that will cut down that famous number of visitors somewhat, eh?

At least the system will not be able to be extended to the waterways—as not enough boats have visible numbers!

It's going to be another long one

In the past a broken paddle was no long job, but as most of us now realise repairs are taking longer/becoming stretched out (take your pick).

Which is certainly applying to the one at Newlay Top Lock on the Leeds & Liverpool, with our now being informed that though the leaking paddle has been blocked-off, further work is needed to repair it, and that the dam will not now be done until 'next week' and then it needs the 'design a suitable solution to repair' being the next stage...

As the lock is now closed to navigation though the leak has been stopped, does this mean there was only one paddle working? Or surely navigation could still continue.  We are not told.

What have CaRT and TinTin in common?

What indeed do the cartoon character TinTin and Canal & River Trust have in common? Quite a lot judging by Canal & River Trust's host of comic incidents which might link them.

But the answer is most unlikely, as Roger Fox points out. They both feature in the new passport recently issued by the Kingdom of Belgium as part of the security printing.

TinTin was of course created by a Belgian and Bloomfield Terrace moorings at the end of the GU Paddington Arm is managed by CaRT, with both appearing on the passport in images that are part of the watermarking process to make them hard to copy!

The reasons for the choices may seem obscure but perhaps they illustrate places which you might visit while clutching your new Belgian ID document!

Victor Swift