I WOULD like to thank Guildhall councillors Brian Watson and Janet Looker, as well as the Neighbourhood officers, for enabling funds to spent from the Guildhall Ward Community Chest on much-needed railings on the steps down to the towpath on Marygate Landing.

This makes the operation of the Stickleback café easier, and makes climbing up from the towpath to the footpath a lot safer for the general public and visiting boaters.

We are getting better facilities for boaters and the public in York.

All we need now is for the toilet block and stand pipe situation to be sorted out. When the toilet block by Lendal Bridge is closed to the public during the winter months, is there going to be access to the British Waterways Key access toilet and the standpipe and toilet-emptying point during the winter? Will there be a BW key lock on the gate in the railings?

By the way, from April 2012 we will all have to start calling them the CART facilities, as British Waterways is to become a national charity called the Canal and River Trust. Now, no jokes please about which came first? The CART or the horse?

Tony Martin, Chair, North Riding Branch, Inland Waterways Association, Clarence Street, York.