On Sun, 15 Oct 2006 09:36:45 +0100, Will Chapman wrote: >That's just the sort of thing you should tell your MP. By the way, its >not thousands of people that enjoy the waterways. BW estimates are that >there were 30 million visitors last year.
I can do better than that. Here are a few useful quotes and statistics. All taken, with spectacular (but very useful) irony, from http://www.defra.gov.uk/Environment/water/iw/tomorrow/chp6.htm published in 2000 "There are about 100,000 licensed boats on the waterways and the system supports a holiday hire-boat industry of about 3,000 craft. Rowing, canoeing and sailing are widespread. Angling is very popular - some 300,000 people fish British Waterways' canals, 100,000 of them regularly." "Much larger numbers of people use the waterways for informal recreation activities such as walking, cycling, bird watching and exploring the waterway heritage. It is estimated that 165 million leisure visits are made each year to British Waterways' canals and rivers alone." "The recreational use of the towpaths and other waterside paths has grown dramatically in the last 20 years. They provide access to open countryside from towns and villages and many people use them as pleasant traffic-free routes to walk or go by bike to and from work or school." "Across the country, the holiday boat business alone is estimated to attract more than 250,000 customers per year (10% from overseas), creating and sustaining jobs, and contributing more than £40 million to local economies." How about working these up into something for the website somebody? -- On-line canal route planner: http://www.canalplan.org.uk (Waterways World site of the month, April 2001) My Reply-To address *is* valid, though likely to die soon Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/canals-list/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/canals-list/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
