There seems to be a war between the government and the Canal River Trust after the government cut CRT funding, and boaters are caught in the middle with no way to dispose of their rubbish.  

Fly tippers blamed for abusing the site on council grounds, council has apparently sued CRT for neglecting to resolve the issue (e.g. building roof on compound and making site accessible to key / coded locks for service users, or to rebuild further from road).

To their credit, CRT had resolved rat infestation months ago. 

According to CRT staff they have until Friday 15th to resolve the problem.

Hundreds of service users have been impacted including business licence holders (boat cafe, Airbnb boats), continuous cruising licence holders, and permanent mooring holders nearby, who bid high rates for moorings that were described as having such facilities. 

Contractor Biffa picked up waste 11.03.24, shown in photo attached and plan to collect the containers later this week as well as destroying the compound with zero adequate replacements provided, so boaters will have nowhere to dispose of their bins on the busiest part of the network (other compounds at Bath and Dundas will soon overflow/ are not accessible by car and too far to continuously cruise to every time a bin needs emptying.) Nearest bins in Darlington Wharf were closed years ago.

The environmental impact on local community and wildlife (e.g. local primary school a couple metres away) have been described at length in a petition. HERE

A group email was sent late on Wednesday 6th March to CRT (including Richard Parry) and to three BANES councillors (Kevin Guy, Sarah Warren and Tim Ball) by over a dozen local residents and boating licence holders concerned with the negative environmental impact of this abrupt decision (service users were given 6 days' notice). 

The Bathampton Parish Council is apparently also trying to gain information. Google searches will reveal CRT are closing their bins throughout the country as a potential strategy to cut costs / shift responsibility onto local councils?