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We, (including you), do not know who has been contacted and what avenues have been explored, and what has not been explored. What you can be sure of is that this has been going on for a long long time, and there has been plenty of opportunity for the various supportive agencies to be involved, particularly as the guy seems to have friends who have loaned him a boat and who are organising a collection for him. In addition, the NBTA must have been involved for some time and will have been in a position to help, or call for help. As I said above... if the help had started earlier, he could have been helped to fund his licence, his insurance, and his BSS, such that nobody would have been turning up at 9am.... Having said that... in my area, (Manchester), the council have a policy of telling people they cant help with homelessness until somebody is actually made homeless. This means people having to be evicted by bailiffs and on the street. If someone were to leave their home and becoming homeless at any point before the bailiffs come, they are deemed to have made themselves homeless voluntarily, and the coucil say they have no requirement to help, (This is actually illegal but, if you are the vulnerable tenant at risk, you are not really in a position to argue). So it is entirely possible that the council will help the guy, but were not willing to do anything until after 9am on the day, when he was evicted.

As a minimum social services should have been there but then again I'm one of those hippy idealists that thinks that no one should be left like this

Whatever the rights and wrongs of the situation and I doubt anyone here really knows the history of who did what to who the poor sod shouldn't have been left on the towpath with his possessions stacked around him

Oh Dear. That describes that feeling that I get when I feel obliged to take the side of someone who I really would not like to have living near me. The bloke has probably been 'just about managing' to feed and clothe himself for ages, he has probably been only one step from homelessness for years, the state of the boat looks awful, the living conditions not much better than a cardboard box and now he loses even that and is presumably on the streets. Well that's better for everybody innit? No doubt all of us capable, sensible folks have all the right paperwork and we don't suffer from too much confusion and can remember to do all the necessary stuff, - he obviously can't. I know CRT have their responsibilities and that doesn't include sorting out the lives of the inadequate or just plain hopeless but if social services can provide ramps for disabled and help with living surely someone could have got in touch and prevented this. It hasn't solved anything except making the canal a bit neater when the boat is crushed.

What surprised me when I read the story on FB was how all his neighbours were up in arms what what the bad C & RT had done to wonderful Tony and how everyone should chip in and help buy him another boat then it came out that these same people had known that Tony had had warning notices etc and had ignored them. Why did they not all chip in then and help the guy? Haggis

Digitally, and otherwise, the swan and bridge could have been revitalised by the use of colour, as it is not obviously a bridge and swan to the uninitiated. What is it going to be: a Tim and Pru [Rosey and Jim] type family walking hand in hand along a scenic towpath, with a kayak and a bike in the foreground, a historic narrowboat in the background, and a digitally enhanced kingfisher in a cameo. Mixed messages. It seems the CRT have no funding to replace important message boards like depth gauges, but have decided to spend money on new clothing and goodness knows what else, are all the B&W C&RT notices to be replaced .......... it will cost a fortune. If awareness is low among towpath users, that is a problem which can easily be addressed but I don't think that it will help with re financing, which seems to me to be the problem. Were the stakeholders consulted ................ a virtual suggestion box might have come up with a few acronyms and straplines. WET : Waterways & Environment Trust CRINGE : Canals, Rivers, Industrial Navigations and General Environment WC : Wellbeing for Canalophiles, WD-40 Wildlife Diversity for all Moaty McMoatface

Some of these comments are nauseating in their sanctimoniousness and smugness, in my view. If some one has to be evicted from their home I would wish, at the very least, other agencies are contacted in advance, and that on the day every possible avenue to re home the person instantly has been explored and made public. For C&RT staff to turn up mob handed at 9am, with a number of Police, and tell some one to take their dog, and what they can carry off the boat, before seizing it, is simply unacceptable. C&RT actions may well be legal, but there is a much better way. Whilst holding out a begging bowl with one hand (breech) they conduct themselves in this bullying unnecessarily brutish way. Rog

Is that fare?

I believe the re-branding will be a fairly costly exercise when you factor in the cost of replacing all employee and volunteer uniforms, change of logo on signage and vehicles. It is a pity there is no flexibility in the budget structure which could divert this money to the repair of the Middlewich arm. I know the amount of money saved on the branding would not cover the cost of the repair but it would help.

Dear me, I've only been "on board" with inland waterways for twelve months, it takes a while to understand the ins and outs of such a large and complex organisation Canal and River Trust seems to me to sum up the ethos in three words, re-branding suggests a failure to convey a message, if this is so, that is the issue to be addressed. It costs a lot to rebrand, and I don't think that a new name will confer a new image, or a better understanding of the complexity. In other rebranding of charities I have seen the acronym is used frequently, and has to be fairly short, eg RSPB, WHW. I can't imagine something shorter than C&RT, other than CRT. I assume the C&RT are not re-branding for any negative reason [cf Windscale [plutonium, fire, disaster, obfuscation, pollution]--> Sellafield [recycling plant] I left mainstream large company employment some time ago, before wellbeing, wellness, and diversity, at the time it was sea change, movers and shakers, but these are now consigned to the the litter bin of the last century.

He’s cleverer than he looks!

Canal and River Trust Council Meeting March 2018 The following is my report - I have used some notes from Andy Tidy’s report (mostly the finances as he explains it better than I could) As these are my recollections from notes they are not designed as an exact record and are not minutes. Therefore , they should not be accepted as such. We were invited to York this year. Owing to constraints of dialysis, I opted to do a long day - getting up at 4.45am, getting a train at 6am and arriving at York at 8.15am, where we were met by two young ladies from the Leeds Office with a sign and everything. Once everyone that was coming by train arrived, it was a short stroll to the bus taking us the 6 miles to Naburn Lock - a fascinating place - Kenny, the Lock keeper has been there over 30 years - his cottage is flooded on average 5 times a year and he remains remarkably sanguine about this fact. It is a beautiful place and although the Trust operate the navigation of the River Ouse, the only land the Trust own is the island, stables and lock-keepers cottage, 6 miles outside York. There is a caravan park next door (a good catchment area) and the river cruises start and return here taking passengers into York - the challenge now for the Trust is to make the island at Naburn Locks a tourist destination and teaching place, to this end they are redeveloping the old wharf offices and making them flood resistant, this entails stripping plaster off walls and pitting drain holes in the floors. It was a lovely morning - sunny and the river had subsided enough for our cruise to happen. It is the only real chance you get to meet other council members and Trustees, much “networking”. We arrived at the pier and a short walk to the Yorkshire Museum through the gardens ahead of the showers. The Council meeting ran from 11.30am to 4.30pm with a short break for lunch. There is always a dinner in the evenings for the Trustees and local businessmen and councillors - a chance to drum up funding opportunities for both the local Waterway area and the Trust nationally. The day is normally a series of presentations on what the Trust has been doing by senior managers and this was no different really - a slight emphasis on looking forward and as there are only two meetings a year - the other is in September and the morning is the Public Meeting., so this is the longest meeting. I could not get to Bath last year as I had dialysis that day; so this was the first meeting I had been to since the first meeting in Liverpool two years ago. Allan Leighton opened the meeting and then we had Richard Parry’s report with him reporting the following: towpath satisfaction at 91% although awareness that the Trust maintains the towpath is only at 36% (a lot of people believe are local government operated and maintained), the target was 40%, there are 23,500 Friends of the Trust. The Trust had a turnover of £200m and a small surplus of £800k. Income included a £2.7m grant from the Postcode Lottery ( most of which has been spent on the Marple Flight and Aqueduct). Income was higher than budgeted for.  A recent High Court Judgement in the Trust’s favour in the Thames Water -v- CRT, which may mean additional income in the future. Planned 240 winter stoppages and 180 lock gates replaced, quadrants on the Eastern side of the Huddersfield had to be replaced due to subsidence. Eight open days (2 had to be cancelled due to the snow) and attracted 15,000 visitors. Safe guarding, especially in view of recent revelations in other charities, they have procedures and processes in place for visitors, volunteers and staff. New regional structure, due to be in place on the 4 June, as 18 posts of the 60 posts (reduced from 78) still have to be filled, only 27 of these new managerial posts are Senior, with the Regional Directors in place in April. No gender pay gap exists within the Trust Main gender pay is -3.6% and Median pay Gap = -13.8% Julie Sharman, the new Chief Operating Officer, reported on the following River Lea Navigation at Pyms Brook - a tanker full of oil was illegally dumped in the brook and has been very difficult to clear up and has resulted in a 5 week stoppage; there is an ongoing police and EA investigation the recent drowning in Manchester and the temporary barrier erected to prevent people crossing the lock across the lock gates rather than the bridge 30 feet away Middlewich Breach, which although not as big as Dutton in 2012 has challenges regarding access - fortunately, there was no damage to houses and they have set up a Just Giving Page. As with all unplanned stoppages this diverts contingencies and means planned works are put further back on the plan. Business Plan 2018-19 Focus is on Caring For the Waterways, Sustaining Waterways and moving to becoming to a Waterway and Wellbeing Trust; to extend its aims to a wider audience. The quality of contractors used is being closely scrutinised following well known issues with Carillion etc. The EA transfer now appears unlikely. BWML is seen as a non core operation and a buyer is being sought. £8.4m to be spent on dredging, £20.6m on operational (culverts, aqueducts etc) Dame Jenny Abramsky - appointments committee chair Terms of Reference amended to reflect the new Regional Advisory Boards and recruitment of chairs is under-way in the 6 regions with definition of the minimum and maximum number of seats on regional committees. Following the departure of some experienced trustees replacements are being sought National Council Review Group discussions took place and concluded that a Council Member handbook would be of benefit, defining what a council member does and more importantly doesn’t do, how its is done and how best to maximise the influence membership offers. The trust should look at a way of partial refreshment of members rather then everything en masse Should clarify the roles of appointed and elected council members Maybe the use of smaller sub groups, such as the boaters reps meeting would be beneficial Long Term Debt (these are Andy Tidy’s notes, as his explanation is brilliant) Stuart Mills (Chief Investment Officer and Sandra Kelly (Finance Director) At its inception it was agreed that the Trust should carry some debt, initially via a £25m revolving credit line upped to £50m in 2016. This debt was consolidated in a private bond placement of £150m at the end of 2017. This debt is agreed over a 30 year term at less than 3% in offering stability. The money is invested in the Trust's investment portfolio of which property is making 10.8% and non property 9%. In effect the trust is borrowing cheaply based on its asset base and inherent strength, investing the money is assets which are earning a return which is higher than the financing costs and the difference (called arbitrage) is profit applied to the trusts wider operations. (Andy comment 1. Don’t get blinded by this high finance stuff. In simple terms the trust owns investment assets of £800m which is an endowment providing income. They see an opportunity to make more money from this source and are borrowing some long term money to buy more commercial property. Its a bit like a glorified "buy to let" where you use the value of your home to support a cheap second mortgage to buy another property which you then let out.) The private placement was to a number of well known North American and European institutions which, we were assured, do not carry reputational risks. (Andy's comment - I am comfortable with this overall arrangement which appears prudent and well stress tested, however, as with personal debt, a bit is fine but one can overdo things. The Trustees assured us that they have no current intention of any further placements beyond £150m and in my view any further increase in long term debt should be discussed before it is entered into) Licensing John Horsfall (Interim Head of Boating) 32,000 leisure licenses and 1,000 business licenses covering 32,000 craft, generating £27m of income He did say boaters should be major advocates for the Trust The rules covering licensing are within the BW Act of 1995, and there has been a dramatic increase in the number of boats used as dwelling since the act was passed, particularly in the London and K&A. (My comment - the majority recently are boats without a home mooring - this is partly choice but also because of a general lack of permanent moorings in these areas) John made mention of the choice that people make to live in these areas - London Mooring Strategy is still to be issued. The recent review is about fairness, not income generation. With this goal in mind they have opted t give 2.5% discount to all those paying DD whether annually or monthly. Consultation elicited 11,000 responses and an overriding desire was to see area included in the calculation; however, they decided against area as there would have been those who ended up paying a greater fee. The announcement has so far generated 15 to 20 complaints. All changes are being phased in. Some areas such as discounts such as Electric, Historic and areas of high demand and are subject to further ongoing review to ensure that they deliver the desired outcomes. Brand Update Nicky Wakeford Brand awareness has been growing and has risen from 30% in April 2016 to 36% today (the target was 40% for this year) The cascade of engagement is : Beneficiary (say towpath user) to Follower (Social media) to Friend and then Volunteer. The slower than expected growth in public awareness is a major issue as it is inextricably linked with the bid for further government grant funding when the existing package expires. Focus groups were convened to identify the key message needed. Well Being emerged as the key message the Trust are not communicating - the benefits of being able to spend time beside water which has a proven link with people’s emotional and physical wellbeing. The resulting strapline is "making life better by water". This altered strapline will be accompanied by a change of logo, a circle shape in blue and green to give a better fit on towpath and digitally; they wouldn’t show us the new logo but it will be launched on 21 May with all web based screens changing that day, and everything else replaced as they roll out (I have subsequently discovered offices have not been ordering headed paper in preparation) and it will be on a 2 to 3 year roll out The cost is from within the existing Marketing budget and we are assured that this exercise has not involved expensive consultancies; the main cost being a graphic designer for the new logo. My comment - I have to say I had more messages concerning this than anything else - particularly as the breach and lock closure have closed both the Cheshire and Four Counties Ring in the North. So I asked on the behalf of boaters - why now? Why not tell us the cost? Nicky responded that it was within the existing marketing budget with no extra funds going towards it, Time marches on and with the government grant coming to the end of its term the Trust needs to raise its profile - it is the 18th largest but the Woodland Trust is better know than them and without the government grant there would be a 25% income gap which cannot be filled with the existing other income strands. So in order that they can maintain the waterways into the future both online and towpath presence needs to be increased, so that the government can see the benefits of supporting the waterways as a health benefit for the wider land based communities in cleaning the air in urban areas and the transportation of both water and goods. I have to say I understand the need for increasing awareness but to announce into a vacuum was not the smartest move in my humble opinion. All we have is that it is modern and will influence people who are not influenced now. The meeting then closed - the annual meeting is in Birmingham in September and there are Boaters’ Rep Meetings in the interim, so please get in touch with any comments, questions I can pass on.

One could argue that price is the only relevant criterion here. If it needs overplating then the price could reflect that. If it needs a new engine then the price could reflect that. It’s like a house or anything else for that matter, if it doesn’t sell then it’s priced too high.

How do you passify it? Take it for a pint

CaRT could raise plenty of money with a bit of innovative thinking. How about staff and volunteers going out on to the towpaths and mugging passing walkers and cycists. CaRT's own figures say there are millions of towpath visits a year, so all those purses, wallets and mobile phones will bring in enough to eliminate the maintenance backlog and restore miles of derelict canal giving even more towpath mugging opportunities. Jen

Well whilst I agree that The Canal River Trust are not doing everything that everybody wants and that they are strapped for cash. Whether we like it or not it is all we have between boaters and no canals. If CRT do not get money from wherever they will go down the pan and canals for the most part will be handed over to builders to build their cardboard new builds on. As I have said I do volunteer work for CRT although I no longer have a boat because, like you, I didn't think the huge amount of money that I was paying to CRT was being used to my, or other boater's, benefits. I do see CRT paying out huge amounts to benefit cyclists, walkers and fisherpeople. I am not against any of these canal users as such but boaters put in, at least, the second largest amount of money. At this point in time there is not a lot we can do to change where that money goes. The Inland Waterways Association, single handedly as an organisation, saved the waterways way back when. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, they are a spent force. The canals do need some radical thinkers within the boating fraternity to bring back in focus the real reason the waterways are here. As for getting the message across that is exactly what us volunteers are here for. On the education side we do water safety, how the canals work, canal history. We take parties along the tow paths explaining things about the canals etc, flora and fauna and things like that. these are all part and parcel of being on the canals. Other volunteers, such as volunteer lock keepers, should be talking to boaters and other people using the canals to make them aware of why the canals are there. I know a lot of people on this, and other boating forums, poo hoo the idea of volunteers. Yes there are bad ones and ones that only want to blow their own trumpet that is inevitable. But the vast majority of us do it because we want to see the canals survive. Because we think that talking to people about the canals will help to ensure their existance. I live within walking distance, more or less, of eight schools, half a dozen cubs, brownies, rainbows, beavers etc etc. I have never been asked to go to any one the schools or local youth organisations to talk about water safety or any other canalia topics. This is because these people do not know we exist. As a retired non official type person I cannot just walk into schools or youth organisations. In this day and age I would, probably, be chucked in jail even though I have current DBS certificates. This side of things has to come from the official (paid) members of CRT. They do do this, or at least the education co-ordinators that I have been and are associated with, do but they are on their own. They cannot possibly get around all the organisations that would benefit from what we do. Therefore the things we can do tend to be very localised. This is also because there are not that many volunteers. I am about to say something which will raise the hackles of some and for those of you that do volunteer this does not apply to you but rather than coming on to a forum and complaining about CRT, who I will agree are not the best at managing the canals, get up and volunteer for something and one way or the other get the canal message across. Whilst I no longer have a boat I do not want to see cardboard new builds on our canals. Do something.

I did the latter with the lockie waving gently,less gently and then frantically. Made it though.

Well it is summer right now, but not tomorrow . Anyway for the removal of doubt, when I said summer it will be July, and hopefully the river will be playing ball.

As part of their preparations in advance of the current Bill receiving Royal Assent, the Commissioners have decided that they need to smarten up their assets, in order to provide extra amenities for visiting boaters. They have changed the contractual terms of all their staff to reflect this. Here is a photo taken last weekend of Paul smartening up the banks of the River Great Ouse, following the recent dredging at Salters Lode. Such devotion to duty. I gather his next task is to paint the tyres white, so they can be more easily seen.

If one removes the improbable then whatever is left, however impossible, must be true. ... or something like that

Thats easy he will have been moored further up near the bridge on the right hand side [museam gardens i think] maybe? and as the water goes up the mooring becomes unsafe! So he has to move to a safer mooring down stream its not choice its necessity!

That'd be 'new town' class then

because more would be far too dangerous

The best solution for that is to replace the BSS examiner.

Our share boat had short lengths of copper pipe on the threaded section.