Hello All
yes - we'd all like it if the minority had respected nearby homes, sadly a few did/have not and made it harder to co-exist. I suspect that we see this in all areas of life?
The original tow path was relatively narrow between the mills and was all stone so was difficult to moor - especially without making trip hazards and bicycle hazard. Flat owners did do due diligence and mooring was not an issue as rarely anyone moored in this location!. However, the canal started to leak and, with money short, British Waterways used the funds it was going to use to create visitor moorings, in a better location, for this position. They needed to fix the leak urgently and suggested that this (not ideal location) would be OK and assured us boaters were typically very considerate people and would not cause any issues - which to a very large extent was correct!
The newly created moorings, adjacent to the visitor moorings, seem to be able to take 4 boats so is a similar size to the visitor moorings we're talking about. So with the visitor moorings as well this means that overall capacity has been increased.
The "canyon" effect means that noise really does travel. Quiet unexpectedly you'd be amazed. The geese for example can be especially noisy, even with double glazed windows closed - but none of this proves to be an issue really, in fact it is part of the “character” that comes with living by water as has been pointed out - however over 4 hours of a diesel engine running to charge batteries is really something else – surely we can all agree on this? BTW should I assume that there advances in the engines used/sound emissions allowed? Some boats seem far more noisy than others?
I'm trying not to be a nimby..... “some of my “best friends” are boaters, some even from different ethnicities, sexual orientation and physical abilities!”….. :-)