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found this little gem today http://www.eafa.org.uk/catalogue/774 we still drink at the ferryboat! and this one further up the river http://www.eafa.org.uk/catalogue/1068

The only reason this site is rated first at the moment, is because prolific posters like yourself who spend 12-18 hrs a day on here, make the post count high. I spend a lot of time on the towpath, to be honest, I don't see that you do, unless of course your walking up and down with a dongle in your ear. The fact is, Peter underwood is trying (rightly or wrongly) to do something, in my opinion, you just sit on here with your finger up your @%% trying to convince everyone that your attempting debate? Lol, yeh, ok

Yesterday whilst out boating we had a call from an old friend who was nearby, we met up at a pub. Now this guy is well connected and a dedicated waterways enthusiast as well as true businessman, what he had to say shocked us. "What happens when it fails?" was the opener. WHAT? - OK its all progressing towards next April, lots of hype about volunteers doing the work - great, Robin & Co get nice handout, maybe a gong or two, "We saved the waterways for you - cheerio". And they stroll off into the sunset over the peaceful waterways. Its all fine for a few months, then the volunteers drain away leaving just a few to do the work (How many examples of this do you know?) maintenance backlog builds up, no ones coming forward anymore, some canals now have severe restrictions in place, we dont seem to be progressing like they predicted. Then the ineviatble whammy - a breach, big nasty, serious and hellish expensive and on a major route. All hell breaks loose as contractors set in with little experience, screw the job up, it fails again and the whole thing escalates out of proportion............ OK its a story for now but it could happen, ..... So the government sees red, the Trust is not capable of handling the tasks, the Trust is costing the Government a fortune. What next? Sorry trustees this is over, we need to take this "In house", and once again "British Waterways" reincarnates itself, with a nice office in a leafy town di dah di dah di dah. Have we been there before? Oh yes, remember "Railtrack"? ???? Oh yes look what happened there! Could this really happen on the waterways? Well look for evidence now and in the right places there is plenty to find. I know of two large businesses which have approached BW with "Win win" proposals on major tasks, one is still waiting a proper reply months on, the other was told that the task needed a bigger company to run it than the one making the proposal - even though that company is a market leader in the particular technology!! Vince Moran - is he capable of producing what he talks about? Where does he get the numbers from? Are BW "cooking the figures"? - well yes, I know Community payback workers are having their hours counted as volunteers, bet the yobs will help continue painting lock gates when they are free to go yobbing again - I guess not! What worries me that our visitor has often speculated on outcomes in our waterway community before and has often been correct. If this time his forecasting has value, and BW arent really seeing the true picture then trouble will lie ahead. Only last week a meeting held with Robin Evans discussed serious shortcomings of volunteer co ordinators in the South East and South West. My own dealings with people in the Midlands leaves a lot to be desired with requests taking months to get answers and even then the issues are not addressed properly. And I am not the only one experiencing this first hand. Possibly the worst thing is that current BW top end management KNOW this forthcoming scenario may or will fail and are just riding it out for the payout and the sweet goodbyes.

Good job I've just found my tin hat , here goes! Hi there, if a fan is pulling fumes from your stove then you have a serious natural ventilation problem ( or the fan is made by Hawker Siddley) The free ventilation within the room where the stove is sited should be such that a small fan would have no effect on the stove. A small fan overcoming the natural draw of the stove flue could also indicate a seriously bad flue arrangement. Regards A

Peter did what he did with what he had at hand. I may be wrong - but I am not aware that there a list of mobile telephone numbers for all boaters? So he used what he had - Facebook and Twitter with access to millions of people some who have chosen to enter into "boat owner groups" in either of the medium. Seems like a sensible approach to me. Like you I did not agree with everything in the manifesto, but as April is only a few short weeks away. - What exactly are the other alternatives? List of alternatives. 1) do nothing.

Well, you might be bored, but I think this is a fascinating discussion, and directly relevant to the original thrust of the topic. If you're bored by it, no one is forcing you to read it, let alone contribute to it in such a pointless negative way.

To be fair, this site is not taken too seriously of late. If I mention it on the towpath, most boaters laugh at what goes on here. I must admit, a minority on here are spoiling a good site. I have met Peter underwood, and didn't have much time for him, but, others have, and more to the point, he got a response from one of the trustees. In my book, he at least tries ;-)

It deliberately sets out to marginalise boaters by dismissing the rights and contributions of other interested parties. The waterways will survive by working with cyclists, walkers, anglers and canoeists, all who have effective and respected national organisations, unlike boaters. Perhaps we should acknowledge that there is plenty to learn from these people, instead of arrogantly dismissing them.

From the tone of the letter, given that it's the Yorkshire Post, I'd say he was having a particularly good morning. If he'd got out of bed the wrong side, an anti-cyclist Yorkshireman would be outside his house chucking a stinger under the wheels of your daughter's bike, rather than writing a letter.

If only that were true. Most cyclists contribute to the upkeep of the roads....because they own a car and/or pay council tax. When a cyclist leaves his car on the drive then, presumably, he should get a rebate (taking the article's argument to it's logical conclusion), for using an alternative that is less damaging to the road, less likely to be a burden on the NHS and not annoying motorists by adding to congestion. The vehicle excise duty is not a "Road Fund" tax. The Road Fund was scrapped in the thirties and highway maintenance is funded from general taxation, centrally, and the Council Tax, at a local level.

Looks to me like you could buy one for £60k, enjoy it for three or four years and then sell it for £30k. I guess a £120k dream boat will drop a lot more than £30k in the same time. So on that scale, the poor man's boat comes out top!