REGARDING Ron Freethy's 'Drive and Stroll' article (LET, August 3), the construction of a navigable link between the Lancaster and Leeds and Liverpool canals via a new canal and locks linking the Ribble estuary via Sarick Brook is something I've followed with great interest as a canal boat owner.

Obviously, with the completion of this new link, my range of cruising could be extended and I was looking forward to spending a part of my summer cruising on the Lancaster canal.

I was hoping to spend time visiting Preston, Lancaster, having a day out to Morecambe and a sail down to Glasson Dock.

Unfortunately, it is not all plain sailing for the boater. There is a catch! To use the Ribble link there's to be a charge of £70!

Now for some, £70 is little more than a meal and a drink in some smart pub, but not for the majority, who will have put all their hard-earned savings into their boats.

After paying British Waterways hundreds of pounds for a cruising licence and mooring fees, it will cost nearly £1,000 to cruise and moor a 50ft boat on the canal. Now we find they have to pay even more.

What's happened to the motto: 'Waterways for all?' Waterways for all with money -- poor people and people on low incomes need not apply.

ALAN HOLDEN, Marlborough Road, Accrington.