I READ with trepidation that the towpath at Nettle Bridge on the Oxford Canal is closed until next year, writes Julian Warne.
This is just beyond Hawkesbury Junction were we moor our boat and use that towpath in our training, that I must admit was something of a problem, it being most unsafe, but now closed.
A bargaining tool
I was surprised that Canal & River Trust issued a stoppage notice though, as its towpaths are a bargaining tool to get more money from the government with its 'Making life better by water' and suchlike.
So to close it until next year seems ridiculous to me, and makes me wonder if the government has seen through its campaign, as there were two such towpath closures published, whereas I don't remember seeing a towpath stoppage before in the many years we have been boating.
But now the Oxford Canal towpath is closed between Nettlehill Bridge and Grimes Bridge until it is repaired next year.
A billion a year
So does that mean the many thousands of visitors that we calculate use the this towpath every day, be deducted from the total of visitors to the waterway towpaths?
And I have to ask: Has it got to a total of a billion waterways visitors a year yet?