Canal & River Trust Reviews 88

We had a small rowing boat ⛵ at the bottom of our garden in the Canal where we used to feed the canal wildlife from . Unfortunately due to the recent heavy rains and bad weather the boat took on water and sunk slightly next to the bank of our garden . We contacted the canal and river trust for assistance as I had spent many weekends in wadders in the canal trying to to lift the said craft and empty the water from it but I eventually failed . But the canal and river trust east midlands can to our resuce and assistance and a gentleman and young lad came to our location and emptied the contents of the boat and all the water and refloated the boat for us in a matter of no time absolute excellent service great people and team who attended our needs very friendly and absolutely helpful nothing was to much trouble and hopefully going forward we can recover the rowing boat and waterproof it and the wildlife can enjoy it use again or being fed again from the boat ⛵ Once again many thanks for the two people we would like to express our thanks to them and the canal and river trust for there help in our quest and problem we had . Kind regards Kelvin turner and Jackie Williamson sth wigston Leicestershire. ( Grand union canal midlands area) we also made a donation to the canal and river trust as we where very impressed as how they came to ours aid abd helped us out i hope our donation helps to benefit the charity and aids others with enjoyable from our waterways and canals of our region . Thanks you again east midlands region of canal and River and also Mr t and friend . Excellent work carried out and very tidy and helpful throughout .

An absolute shambles worst company I have met in my lifetime. As a continuous cruiser I was told to move in a flooded river already marked as dangerous do not navigate on there own site.This happened several times in flooded conditions. This so called charity are a shambles

Been using the canals for 12 years now and the difference between then and now is unbelievable. There are virtually no staff to be seen on the canals compared to 12 years ago. Came up the whole of the Grand Union saw no one from C&rt. Services are being closed (water points, showers etc) only volunteers to sometimes help through lock flights, canals and reservoirs silted up, locks barely working. They have however managed to double the number of office only jobs with some massive salaries for newly created directors and upper management. Who are they managing ? There is no one on the actual canals. They have single handedly destroyed our lovely heritage - thousands of volunteers restored hundreds of miles of canals which have now been totally neglected by C&rt. They blame the grant but it is not lack of money just mismanagement of money will all the new office staff and massive directors salaries. They also got rid of trained skilled maintenance staff and now have to rely on vastly overpriced contractors who do a worse job for twice the money. They are an absolute disgrace.

Canals and river trust absolutely useless. We use to have a lovely canal in Bridgwater untill the so-called trust took over it. They shut off the walk way and water way between Bridgwater and Taunton in 2020 they said the timbers which goes across the canal are rotted and dangerous. The timbers has been there for about ten years. They are two feet square. I looked at them and they are only rotted two inches in. They have been saying they are going to fix it. It is now 2024 still not fixed and walker's and cyclists are having to travel through the town to get to the part of canal which is open. The canal and river trust is a complete joke with jobs worth people working for them closing off walk ways. I thought the canal and river trust was there to keep water ways and walk ways open. I don't think so. They are also trying to get rid of the canal people living in their barges which is very stressful for them. They have been moored along the canal for years. They are ruining canals around Britain.

I am a disabled veteran stuck near Harecastle tunnel for weeks now as I am only able to move on Thursdays at the moment because of a course in Liverpool. But the tunnel doesn’t open on Thursday. All the service stations are out of order. And the Canals are closed North. It’s a Joke where does our money go

CRT are supposedly a “charity” charged with maintaining the canals and inland navigations for boats and every one else to enjoy. In reality they are just an asset-stripping property company with no interest in boats or boaters, constantly cutting maintenance while racking up the fees sky-high, and selling off anything of value. Services for boaters such as sanitary disposal and rubbish bins are being withdrawn across the country, making life as difficult as possible for visitors of all kinds. Would not recommend anyone donates to them while the current shower are in charge.

Poorly managed, waste money where not needed eg new cars/vans/signage (especially signs for people like dog walkers or cyclists who don't even contribute to the system.)

CRT staff don't even look after these new vans, one is seen recently flooded - so more costs to us as that will be written off.

Boaters are the LAST in the priority... Couldn't run a pee-up in a brewery...

The entire network is falling into disrepair. Their facilities are constantly been taken away from us, yet fees are going up - So we now pay MORE for LESS!

CRT are a joke unfortunately, with the big boss's just sat laughing at their big pay cheque every month without a care for us boaters that are putting money in their accounts.

There is no interest in the waterways and their conservation. The management is dire and workers and volunteers disenchanted daily.
CRT were set up to fail so the waterways could be sold off , broken up and privatised as per usual tory policy. CRT are just the facilitators. The actual structures are in disrepair and many unsafe with preventative maintenance unheard of just ignore , bodge when complaints rise and concentrate on paddle boarding , walking and of course the Cycle Race Tracks (CRT) . As a boater I am not expecting to be able to use many canals and rivers for much longer . Many members at our boat club feel the same.

Infrastructure knackered, no preemptive maintenance, money frittered away on management cars etc. All new blue signs and van wraps, no action.

Greedy so called charity. Badly run by a load of lazy people that have no interest in the waterways. Only thing that props up this charity is the volunteers bless them all

They are #notfitforpurpuse sadly, but it's not easy to replace them.

Year after year they charge us more but give us less. They want us all off the water asap unless your in a marina.

Badly run organisation. Little care for people and no regard for wildlife. All about money. Boaters have no facilities to even empty their loos!!

An organisation where they don’t hold any sightings data from your boat doesn’t matter, they’ll just suppose you haven’t cruise enough and restrict your licence.
When you point this out doesn’t matter, they demand from you to provide evidence. When you do, that doesn’t matter either, they’ll keep their decision.

Dire, vile, evil organisation it’s not FOR boaters but AGAINST them.

I would suggest to avoid them but it’s impossible since they have monopoly over canal networks, so CHALLENGE all their wrong decisions, complain and always keep a cruising log (you’ll need it)

The Canal and River trust is not a charity. It is in fact a “public corporation” it does nothing charitable at all and makes a mockery of the charitable status it enjoys. Also it shows a large amount of contempt for boater with low incomes. It should have it charitable status that it uses as a disguise, removed. Its now all about jobs for the boys and fun for the rich

“Charity” the meaning from an online dictionary

“An organization set up to provide help and raise money for those in need”

You have got to laugh!!!!!!!! WAKE UP CRT

An organisation that can't seem to decide between alienating boaters or squeezing every last penny from them. We have recently bought our first boat and have had a nightmarish experience trying to get it on the water, through a combination of confusing and poorly explained documentation, to staff members who haven't received enough training to deal with queries effectively. The only positive experience we've had so far was with the mooring license team who, to their credit, handled our end of garden mooring application extremely well.

A reckless boater, whose boat name was the opposite of his behaviour, rammed lockgates 3 times before exiting rendering the lock gate damaged beyond use. Although we were originally given an estimate on 11/12 September by CRT staff of 2 months, 6 weeks & 2 weeks before repair, CRT engineers Mark & Lee got it sorted in about 90 minutes using a metal collar from a different canal & their sheer brilliance & skill. What could have been a complete nightmare turned out to be just an inconvenience. Thank you so much Mark & Lee. You are worth your weight in gold!

Lovely trip up the Severn from Gloucester to Stourport, all the Canal and River Trust staff at the locks were great, all cheerful and friendly. We were at Stourport for their little festival celebrating their new Heritage Port status and the Canal and River Trust staff at the basin there were fantastic. Special thanks to Laurance, Gemma, Peter and Richard who went out of their way to help us with the facilities there and give us advice about the local area. It made our stay very pleasant.