You are reading a single comment by @Arducius and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
@Arducius
It's pretty likely that those stories are true. Canal and River Trust (supposedly a charity) took over from British Waterways (a government run company) in the management of most of the waterways of Britain, however a lot of the staff remain the same and the attitudes and policies do too.
For most people it's not an issue because they are able to either pay the fines to make the problem go away or make a good argument as to why they had to break the rules. Obviously that's not something that's so easy for vulnerable people.
It's interesting that Bath and North East Somerset Council "were disturbed both by their lack of awareness of equalities issues, and by their use of draconian powers to enforce the conditions of the licenses they issue" which indicates that this is more than just one or two cherry picked cases to highlight an agenda.
*that's a direct quote from a report by BaNES council.