Richard Fairhurst

I'm not sure there's even a concept of an "official name" any more. Probably the nearest is CRT's "functional locations", the internal codes they use to refer to waterways, and that has the Oxford as one waterway (code OX).

The nearest derelict canal to me right now, the Cassington Cut:

Though the other side of the coin is that car accidents are a massive drag on the NHS and boat accidents aren't.

On Sunday it was announced that Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 will be going back from 1st June. Yesterday, more detailed guidance was published and the Government expects these classes, basically, to be taught in half-sizes - i.e. 15 per class rather than 30, for distancing reasons. To do that, fairly obviously, you need twice as many teachers and twice as many classrooms. In other words, the full staff will be working, taking up the full building, for these three year groups. Which would be fine. Except those teachers also still have to set work for years 2-5, assess all that work and give feedback to the kids and parents. There's also the vulnerable y2-5 kids and the children of key workers to accommodate and teach in school. It doesn't add up as it is. So if you want even more kids to go back to school, as you seem to, the only way is for the Government to abandon social distancing in schools, so that classes can be taught at their usual sizes. That's a valid view, sure, but I hope you're confident in your epidemiological model that it won't cause Covid-19 transmission to go skyhigh again, because I'm not. Alternatively, as the ever eloquent Mrs Melly says, "soooooooooooooooooo hard done to innitt".

They do indeed, but it's not clear why. The situation is the same: a solo visit to a boat. If you moor your boat at Victoria Basin (Gloucester), operated by CRT, then you can visit it. If you moor your boat at Diglis Basin (Worcester), operated by BWML, you can't. CRT and BWML have seemingly read the same guidance and drawn different conclusions. Waterside pubs are an entirely different situation.

Or at least, it claims to. Formally it's the national sports governing body for boating, yachting and sailing. Canal boating isn't a sport (well, apart from the BCN Challenge...), and generally the RYA has about as much relevance to canals as British Cycling does to riding a bike to the shops.

10.40am, email from CRT: "With the Government announcing a first step in lifting restrictions on outdoor activities, and allowing people to drive to spend time outdoors with members of the same household, from Wednesday, the Trust is lifting any remaining restrictions on boat owners visiting their boats though the Trust advises against travelling long distances unless it is essential to do so.” 11.17am, email from BWML: "per prior Government advice, our marinas are not currently accessible to those customers who do not have the marina as their primary residence, and we continue to ask all leisure customers to respect this mandate until the Government gives us clarity on any changed advice.”

Indeed: Hugh (last-but-two editor at WW, though that undersells his many years running it!), me (last-but-one editor at WW), and Kevin (last-but-two editor at Canal Boat) have all posted here. Plus Andrew is assistant editor at WW and has posted here - earlier today, in fact.

I think one of the earlier Transport Acts repealed most of the obligations in the original Acts. Not 100% sure though!

Yes and no. The towpaths (by and large) remain permissive access rather than public rights of way. But CRT's Government grant is conditional on towpaths being open to the public: "2.4 The Trustee [CRT] must obtain the Settlor’s [Government's] prior written consent before: restricting pedestrian access to any part of the towpaths within the Infrastructure Property; for example by charging a fee for access, save that consent will not be needed for any temporary restrictions either to allow maintenance/repair works or to protect persons from risks to their safety" So CRT can't permanently withdraw towpath access unless DEFRA agrees, unless it wants to lose its grant. It can temporarily restrict access for safety reasons, which would include the current situation.

It'll do until someone publishes a proper red-covered cruising guide to the Middle Level!

The current issue of Waterways World can be read for free online, in recognition of the fact that most people can't get to newsagents/chandleries right now: https://reader.waterwaysworld.com Lots of good stuff in there (not just my map of the Middle Level ).

No-one is really speaking up for the working-age leisure boater either... The working-age leisure boater needs two things IME. First, unoccupied short-stay visitor moorings at "destination" locations, so that they have somewhere to go in their rare leisure time. For example, we now have the realistic option of a day-trip from our Worcester mooring to Upton: for years that wasn't really possible because of boats overstaying on the visitor moorings. When we moored in Burton, the changes to introduce more short-stay moorings at Alrewas were really valuable - and predictably, they were loudly opposed by retired people who wanted to be able to sit for 14 days on their preferred village centre mooring. Second, reasonable 7/14-day moorings near stations for "weekending" (i.e. moving from place to place over successive weekends). These don't need to be particularly plush - just somewhere, ideally piled, where you can leave the boat for a week or two in the reasonable expectation it will still be there when you get back. The sweeping bend just south of the hire-base at Alvechurch is one such. This sort of spot has, inevitably, become harder to find in recent years because they're also prized by continuous cruisers.

Doesn't help that they screwed up the election (as chronicled at the start of this thread) and the voting pages were incredibly user-hostile to begin with, especially on a small screen. I can't be the only one who tried and failed to vote, and then didn't return to try again when the bug had reportedly been fixed.

No, they don't. There's a de facto closure from Ryders Green Junction to Swan Bridge Junction due to pollution. CRT have put a sign in the middle of the channel asking people not to proceed (at least, they had a few years ago... I presume it's still there).