Arthur Marshall

Basically, range is impossible to define as the area you do it in is as relevant as distance covered. Any set of rules has fuzzy edges which can be exploited until someone decides a limit has been exceeded and someone ends up in court. Then you just get another set of fuzzy edges. The answer to the original question is "probably". Whether anyone wants to live with the resulting uncertainty depends on the desperation of their situation and their estimation of their chance of not only being made homeless but losing their investment into the bargain.

I'm not surprised. I wonder how many of them turn up with a couple of cans of paint and a space booked on Apolloduck...

Both the OP's experience and the one in the same place a few years back were first hand. So were my comments. But it's probably no different from any other inner city area - large number of people, some of whom will be scroats and a lot who aren't. Some places there are safe and some aren't, that's all. Westport Lake is fine.

Same as building new roads doesn't solve the traffic problems. It wouldn't solve the housing shortage, but CRT would make a bit more money, and they'll need it when Government money stops. And not that many people want to live on boats anyway.

So you don't apply for a licence, have no name or number on your boat, and tell anyone who asks for i d to shove off. I suspect what will happen is CRT will turn long stretches of towpath into long term moorings - it's another income stream and nonmoving boats put little wear and tear on the infrastructure. Whether we like it or not, people have to live somewhere, and when houses are unaffordable to buy or rent, you either need a housing price crash, something else cheap, or employers paying sensible wages. The last won't happen, the first might but is unlikely, which leaves...

Whoever runs it makes the rules. Someone has to. Users can challenge if they wish. The winner is usually the one with most money. Keep a low profile, don't push your luck and generally you can get away with murder. Behave like a pillock, shout loudly about being unfairly treated and you're in trouble.

I remember her too. Never understood why people like that buy houses on the canal. It was almost certainly there when they moved in. If you walk into the village, the stationers on the left is also a very fine second hand bookshop.

I remember Rob when he started out ass a youngster, he just liked being out and about. He turned it into a bit of a business and recently had to pay for an expensive bike repair so I usually slip him at least a fiver, though I have never known him to ask for money. He helped me up the Stoke flight this year. Nicest guy you could hope to meet.

The Act is ambiguous, and so like all is open to interpretation. "Continuous cruising" is an attempt to clarify "bona fide navigation". Whether it succeeds or not is moot and in the end is playtime for lawyers, which is why they are rich, we aren't, and CRT loses a lot of money because of those who want to bend the system to suit themselves, rather than the general user. PS anyone who seeks tax advice when they don't want to reduce their tax bill is not only weird, but probably unique. Everybody dodges tax when they can, and so they should... .

I think part of the problem is not cultural in that sense, but mutual poverty tends to result in people looking for reasons to blame for it, and obvious differences make scapegoating simpler. Once you get this tension starting, it's hard to stop. You then start exaggerating the differences, resulting in an invented culture you can claim as your own instead of the actual shared one. Unfortunately, all shades of skin do it. People, unless they own boats, are basically idiots.

There used to be, and may still be for all I know, a halfway house for those about to be released from jail close to the staircase. I met a few guys from there having a smoke by the lock and enjoying a bit of freedom, never had any hassle from them.

There was a post a couple of years ago about someone who got bricked there . It's a shame, but the first safe spot on the Caldon is up by Endon, Milton or Engine Lock. In my younger, hairier days, I usually got offered various interesting substances from lads on the towpath, all friendly enough, mind you. I 've never had any trouble at Westport Lake, though you do get yobs on motorbikes tearing round it sometimes. Stoke is a notoriously poverty stricken area and the atmosphere is often pretty toxic and racist (I've worked round there a lot and have been amazed by the attitudes of people I liked) , so tensions can be high which leads to this kind of mindless vandalism/behavior by all shades. In the town, the only places I'd consider mooring are the Lake or by the Carvery.

No, mine are in a pic about two pages back. I do have a pic somewhere of them in use but it really isn't that exciting,and if I put it on, someone would just tell me I was doing it wrong...

There's a mention in the notes of the CRT meeting that nuisance practices could lead to licence withdrawal. And no doubt a bout of whinging, court action and more money wasted on laywers.

When I reported the knackered stop lock on the Macc (damaged by a boater, mind you, not a CRT employee) it was fixed within hours by a cheerful couple of guys, who also checked and improved various other bits of it. Last one I saw down there had just walked a mile down from the workboat (with tools) as someone had said the byewash was blocked. Generally I've always found them, and BW before, to be pretty dedicated. The problems are higher up, not with yer actual workers, and always have been. And, anyone doing hard physical work out of doors needs the odd break and a cup tea and a chat. I guess the OP has never done any (assuming that he was trying to denigrate CRT employees, which as has been pointed out, he actually failed to do).

I went last year. Underwhelmed was an understatement. Shame as I really enjoyed the run down it thirty years ago.

A well played accordion is fine. The trouble is , so few are, probably including mine these days, as I have now achieved gentlemanly status according to a post above.

Mine have been a godsend. Simple things can make a big difference as your age heads towards the speed limit (motorway rather than canal).

My dad reckoned when he went to college he had three socks and washed one a week.

PS what's changed over the last 30 years is that there are more people about. That's all, really. Nah, no more Mr Nice Guy. I'll bring the blasted banjo. That'll clear me a mooring space fast enough. And if that fails it's accordion time...

I used to be nice till I bought the boat. Now I drive it either like a maniac with a two foot wash or dawdle and won't let anyone pass. Then I hog the best moorings while I go off on holiday and at the same time have to stick around the middle of town so my kids can go to school and I can claim my benefits, while yelling at everyone else to slow down. Luckily, there's loads of room on the towpath for my old cooker and washing machine and my rottweiler has only bitten three kids and a fisherplonker so far. CRT don't know I haven't got a licence because I painted someone else's number on the boat and who cares anyway? The "rules" have no basis in law. I know my rights. And as for share boats, bloody hell, I could tell you a thing or two.

Tell that to the long term CRT towpath moorings all over the place. Tell that to the llangollen moorings. Then stop talking bollocks, if you'll pardon the phrase.

I can't even hear what someone standing next to me is saying half the time - I wouldn't have a chance of hearing someone on another boat asking me politely to hang on a bit.

I suppose I do too, though like most leisure boaters it doesn't really affect me much as generally I want to go and look at a different tree every day or so. Most of the rules, by-laws and guidelines get followed by default, the various restrictions really only impinge on those with a permanent boating lifestyle, or those who claim to have one but actually don't. To add a bit of pedantry to the debate, I empathise with both, but only sympathise with the former.

Arrive about 5pm,stay overnight and next day. Stay overnight and next day. Stay overnight and leave after breakfast . You've been there two days, if by that you mean full daylight, but four nights. It's all ambiguous, 2 days more so than 48 hours.