Boater facilities

We are investing in our essential customer service facilities to make them more robust and quicker to repair.

Read the video transcript
Hi everyone, my name is Steve Bosworth and I lead the operational property team for Canal & River Trust. Today I'm just going to give you a quick update on our new customer service facilities policy, the work we've been doing over the last couple of weeks and months with our contractors and our future investment strategy.
So, as you all are all aware, we have released our new customer service facility policy which means we are going to be providing essential services in the form of water points and Elsans every 7 hours cruising and pump outs every 14 hours. We're also going to be working with our supply chain to ensure that these essential services are given priority for repair with a view of achieving first-time fixes in excess of 80% and that all essential services are attended to within 24 hours of being notified.
In addition to the works that we've done with our supply team to ensure that our services are repaired within 24 hours where possible, we've also announced a £4.5 million investments project, which my team will be heading up. My new team for this project will be starting at the end of September with a view of standardising all of our 600-plus water points across the network.
We'll also be replacing 23 obsolete pump outs to ensure that they can be maintained with our current standards. And we will also be looking to install new standalone Elsan facilities in line with our new 7-hour cruising standard.
Over the next couple of weeks and months via the better boating web pages, we will be providing updates on programmes, schedules of the works, and we'll also provide updates with pictures and communications as well.
Thank you very much, and I look forward to seeing you all soon. Cheers. Take care. Bye-bye.

New customer services facilities policy

In 2024-25 we consulted boaters and developed our new customer service facilities policy, which was published in July 2025. It includes the commitment to provide the essential facilities of water, refuse and Elsan no more than a day's cruising apart, and two days for pump-out.

Our Operational Property team is working with our suppliers to ensure essential facilities are prioritised for repair when things go wrong: we aim to attend essential services within 24 hours of notification, and to achieve a first-time fix in 80% of cases. This is not easy when the facilities vary so much and specific parts need to be ordered. So, we've announced an investment of £4.5 million over 5 years to upgrade and standardise water points, Elsan and pump-outs, increasing the speed and efficiency of future maintenance and repairs.

Two people sit smiling at the front of their moored narrowboat as they fill up with water.

Simpler Recycling

During 2024 planning started to ensure that the Trust was prepared for the introduction of the Government’s Simpler Recycling legislation from 31 March 2025. The legislation was introduced to ensure that as much waste from businesses, households and other non-domestic properties (i.e. schools, hospitals) is recycled as possible.

All businesses with 10 or more full time employees had to be ready for the go live date in 2025, with households following in 2026 and all other organisations in 2027.

The legislation requires waste to be segregated into four types. There was some room for minor changes to these, depending on how the company who collects the waste operates, and for the Trust this meant introducing separate bins for glass, food and dry mixed recyclable to all customer and office sites in England, in addition to retaining the general waste collections.

With over 260 locations to review and the additional challenges of access restrictions, heritage buildings, weight limits and planning regulations, some sites were easier than others. Thankfully, many locations were big enough to accommodate the new bins, but at some sites new compounds had to be planned and constructed, others required moving a short distance and a small number provided even more challenges. In all cases, where work was required improvements were sought, such as adding locks or using CCTV to try and reduce instances of fly tipping.

Large red wheely bins are contained within a section of wooden fencing.

Any new bins were being provided by our waste partners, and the scale of the national rollout did initially lead to some shortages in what was available. This mainly affected the food waste bins, and due to the delivery processes used the different types could not arrive at the same time.

Thank you to everyone for your patience during this period of transition. The last few sites are being finalised and there are still a couple of teething problems that need to be ironed out, but we are meeting regularly with our waste providers to sort these through as they arise.

If you do find an overflowing bin or a problem with rubbish at our waste sites, please let us know.