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Kidlington towpath: boaters want path shut


Alan de Enfield

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RESIDENTS living in narrowboats on the canal are angry and concerned for their health as hundreds of walkers, cyclists, and joggers are flooding to the towpath every day during lockdown.

Those who live on their narrowboats off the Langford Lane towpath in Kidlington said that the ‘towpath has become a nightmare’ with runner’s coughing and spitting onto the area surrounding the residential boats.

 

Married couple Tim and Georgina Webster said they ‘do not feel safe’ living on their narrowboat as no one is social distancing or wearing a mask as they pass through the towpath.

 

Mrs Webster, who suffers from anxiety, said: “I can’t even sit on top of my boat without seeing unmasked coughing and spluttering people, I feel trapped and I shouldn't have to feel this way.”

The area of the towpath where the pair live is only two meters wide in length which the boaters have said makes it ‘hard’ to social distance.

 

More Kidlington towpath: boaters want path shut | Oxford Mail

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Why on earth would you want to sit on the cabin top at this time of year!

 I do sympathise with those inundated with other canal users but fear there could be an unintended backlash in the future the way some boaters have attempted to deal with it. 

 

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7 minutes ago, Athy said:

"Two meters wide in length", eh.? Bad spelling and nonsense combined. One might hope for better from a newspaper which serve one of our greatest university cities.

actually an "area ............. two meters wide in length", which is even more mind-boggling.

 

it seems to me that people who talk journalese believe they can abandon accuracy in the interests of "scoop".

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1 minute ago, Murflynn said:

actually an "area ............. two meters wide in length", which is even more mind-boggling.

 

it seems to me that people who talk journalese believe they can abandon accuracy in the interests of "scoop".

 

I share their concerns, during the first lockdown we were on a popular towpath and the number of runners increased significantly. It looks that for many running quickly takes priority over things like giving way to walkers etc, they just go on their straight line or deviate towards the boat, often gobbing and spitting, it was not nice.

 

..............Dave

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These are Long Term and not residential moorings, so could choose to move.  There's always Agenda 21at Wolvercote.  Better newspaper for for Oxford's dreaming spires? Dream on.

 

Adverse possession, sometimes colloquially described as "squatter's rights", is a legal principle under which a person who does not have legal title to a piece of property — usually land — acquires legal ownership based on continuous possession or occupation of the property without the permission of its legal owner.   Wikipedia.  Just saying

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1 minute ago, rustynewbery said:

Adverse possession, sometimes colloquially described as "squatter's rights", is a legal principle under which a person who does not have legal title to a piece of property — usually land — acquires legal ownership based on continuous possession or occupation of the property without the permission of its legal owner.   Wikipedia.  Just saying

 

 

It was said 'tongue in cheek' (as a large majority of 'freeman of the land' weirdo's seem to inhabit that part of the world).

 

The freeman-on-the-land movement, also known as the freemen-of-the-land, the freemen movement, or simply freemen, is a loose group of individuals who believe that they are bound by statute laws only if they consent to those laws. They believe that they can therefore declare themselves independent of the government and the rule of law, holding that the only "true" law is their own interpretation of "common law". Freemen claims have been argued in the courts of the United States, Australia and Canada but have always been rejected.

Wikipedia, Just saying.

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Know the area very well; your description does seem to fit the type. I wouldn't have wanted to take a mooring  there at any time for the reasons the OP said.

30 minutes ago, NB Alnwick said:

One of the nicer side to living on a boat is that if you don't like where you are you can move . . .

Over the road into your lovely cottage:cheers:

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If the doors and windows on your boat are shut on the towpath side then I don't see what the issue is here.

 

It's not like the virus can fly and find its own way in through another opening.  

 

As for the spitting, I'm against that anyway and never do it myself however as long as they're not physically gobbing on your boat then the risk is fairly minimal.

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13 minutes ago, rustynewbery said:

Know the area very well; your description does seem to fit the type. I wouldn't have wanted to take a mooring  there at any time for the reasons the OP said.

Over the road into your lovely cottage:cheers:

But that brings its own problems - have you seen how fast cars drive through Cropredy?

It is very scary after one has been used to travelling at less than 4 mph.

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45 minutes ago, Athy said:

"Two meters wide in length", eh.? Bad spelling and nonsense combined. One might hope for better from a newspaper which serve one of our greatest university cities.

 

Have we been invaded? Those Americans are everywhere:

 

"The metre (Commonwealth spelling) or meter (American spelling) (from the French unit mètre, from the Greek noun μέτρον, "measure", and cognate with Sanskrit mita, meaning "measured") is the base unit of length in the International System of Units "

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19 minutes ago, IanM said:

If the doors and windows on your boat are shut on the towpath side then I don't see what the issue is here.

 

It's not like the virus can fly and find its own way in through another opening.  

 

As for the spitting, I'm against that anyway and never do it myself however as long as they're not physically gobbing on your boat then the risk is fairly minimal.

 

Perhaps CRT could provide something like this:

June 2018 – The History Anorak

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6 minutes ago, NB Alnwick said:

But that brings its own problems - have you seen how fast cars drive through Cropredy?

It is very scary after one has been used to travelling at less than 4 mph.

So true and even worse along the Claydon Road past the marina entrance.  Why so many use the back road to Aston-le-Walls beats me, it's a rut hole single track used by some quite smart cars [company owned?].

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We are adjacent to SpiceBall Park in Banbury. (Just for a change?). There’s walkers, joggers and cyclist in numbers, and Lycra, passing daily. Here, there is a very suitable alternative to the towpath in the park about four yards away.

 

I have commented to my boss about why people decide to use the muddy towpath when there’s a surfaced footpath nearby. It ever so slightly annoys us but not enough to get the press involved. In the first lockdown the permanent Moore’s just up the canal from us, erected a pallet barrier, passable, with signs asking for alternative routes to be taken for the safety of boaters. It seemed to be effective on the whole.

The opening article could easily snowball into a shouting match resulting in miserable boaters cause trouble again.

 

Regarding joggers spitting. If I was jogging I wouldn’t spit, I’d be vomiting all over the place. Just saying like!

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As an occasional visitor to Hong Kong and mainland China I have been pleasantly surprised by the change to not spitting by the Chinese, it used to be disgusting.

Perhaps having British buses discouraged them too, there were signs inside at one time.

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2 minutes ago, sailor0500 said:

I think this will continue as long as CRT policy makes grass cutting and towpath renewal a priority over dredging and lock maintainance.

 

grass cutting costs them way less than it used to for the subcontract, towpath renewal is mostly funded by other sources, dredging and locks is all down to their own pocket.

make sense?

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I also see that they are moored stem to stern with other boats - presumably their proximity is not an issue. Sounds a bit more like the increasingly common media-induced anti towpath user prejudice. Some folk seem to forget that if the use of the towpath is banned then it will affect them as well!

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They are not residential moorings, so they could go home - it could be argued that they themselves are the 'risk' by being in a place they shouldn't be. People are allowed to use the towpath but those *cough* residents should not be there and should, if the law is followed, be in breach of the lockdown regulations and moved off by the police. 

 

If everyone did one considerate thing a day....  

Edited by Creaking Gate
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