No sympathy from the trust

Published: Monday, 27 March 2023

IT IS QUITE obvious why Canal & River Trust do not offer sympathies to the families of those that drown in its canals, writes Paula Drew.

It doesn't want to admit its canals are not always the deliverers of the much vaunted 'wellbeing' but all too often the cause of deaths, and by offering any sympathy are of course admitting this.

Offer sympathy

Only too often I read in various publications where such as the ambulance service, police, the fire service and various councils offer sympathy to those left behind where someone has drowned in a canal, but not Canal & River Trust, it does no want to draw attention to the real dangers of the canals.

bath fenceI well remember in Bath when students leaving parties and such and being tempted to walk on the parapet by the Avon, accidentally fell in and drowned in the river under the trust's jurisdiction, but I read no word of sympathy, though it was only too well aware it then erecting a fence owing to the furore at the time of so many young deaths.

[The image shows the fence being erected by British Waterways, that had the same policy of not drawing attention—Editor.]

Astute reporter

Even when its own customers misjudge their boats and fall in and so drown, no public mention at all, it left to some astute reporter to cover and reveal the death.

It is all so obvious.