Playtime on the Canal

Are the canals being turned into an alternative playground for children?

I have owned and hired boats over a number of years. In the last three years we have only had one real interaction and been targeted by deliberately bad characters. When a couple of school aged boys decided to spit and throw stones at us from a bridge on the Coventry canal. 

This year, we have watched as kids were throwing stones into the water from the portal of the Foulridge Tunnel.  Totally oblivious to boats that might exit as they threw down the next stone.  Young kids jumping from road bridges into the canal in front of our boat. Kids rafting along the canal because raft making materials that had been reported previously to CaRT still remained in the canal. Young adults jumping from a footbridge into a lock - and that was at a CaRT marina. 

What's changed to encourage all this sudden upsurge in problems?

Well I expect CaRT will blame the weather because its warm and its not raining. I wonder if they feel any responsibility for attracting children into the environment through their own child centric activities.

Later...