SEVERAL ABANDONED BOATS on the Erewash Canal are causing concern.
With campaigners fighting to get them removed.
Five boats abandoned
There are five boats that have been abandoned in the various pounds of the canal, with some having been left for years, sunk, partly sunk or floating.
With campaigners pointing out that they pose a health and safety risk, particularly to children who have been seen climbing and playing on the boats, risking injury.
The discarded boats are also causing problems to boaters, especially the sunken and partly sunken ones that hinder navigation, and certainly give a bad impression of the waterway to visitors.
One, we learn, has sunk near the centre of the canal that is causing obstruction and others have bits floating off.
Not been successful
The Erewash Canal Association has been in touch with Canal & River Trust with a spokesman for the association telling attempts to engage the trust have not been successful.
But the trust has told that unfortunately, it is often left in a situation where boats are abandoned and it has to organise and pay for the recovery that requires specialist contractors and can cost thousands of pounds, diverting the limited resources away from its core purpose of maintaining the waterways.