The measures follow a recent survey carried out by the Trust's East Midlands Waterway Partnership, along with The Boating Association and Inland Waterways Association, which aimed to try and understand what can be done to increase the number of boats on the river.
The survey received over 400 responses, with around 65% coming from boaters with more than ten years' experience. Over half the respondents indicated that they had never tried the River Trent before citing reasons such as a lack of visitor moorings and other facilities, as well as a perception about the increased difficulty of boating on the river rather than a canal.
The Canal & River Trust is now using the feedback from boaters to explore a number of measures to overcome these issues, including:
- Working with partners to find suitable locations and funding for additional visitor moorings
- Looking into better promotion of existing river charts
- Setting up a boating buddy system, which would see boaters travel together
- Creating instructional videos for boaters to view on YouTube
- Working with Google to upload boating data onto their mapping system
Danny Brennan, chair of the Canal & River Trust's East Midlands Waterway Partnership said; “I'd like to thank boaters for giving us their views. We had a really good response which gives us plenty to be going at.
“We've listened carefully to what boaters have told us. Around two thirds of people felt that better information and charts would make them more likely to use the river so we'll look into what's already available and how it can be improved. About four in ten people felt a buddy system was a good idea so this is also something we'll explore. And of course additional visitor moorings are always popular with boaters so we'll look into how this can be achieved.
“We really want to do as much as we can to encourage boaters onto the Trent and other rivers so that they can experience a different type of boating. We also recognise the important benefits that boaters bring to local businesses and communities along the river and hopefully the knowledge and experience that boaters have given through this survey will help us to achieve that.”
