“Rafts on the water fire in the sky” – Deep purple
I’ve been making enquiries into the rules and regulations of using different bodies of water. There doesn’t seem to be anywhere specifically detailing places you can take a raft or coracle, however inland waterways advised me
“There are different rules depending on the waterway you wish to use. Each inland waterway (i.e. canals and main rivers) generally has a navigation authority who may or may not allow use of such vessels. Those who do will probably issue some form of day licence.
From our website at https://www.waterways.org.uk/waterways/individual_waterways you can see a map of navigable waterways and then use our A-Z guide to check who the navigation authority is so that you can contact them.
You may find the website of Canoe England of help, membership of their organisation includes licences to paddle on a lot of waterwayshttp://www.canoe-england.org.uk/“
I also contacted The Canal River Trust. Who said they don’t permit the use of rafts due to safety issues. You could organise a charity fundraising raft event with them which will involve them closing a part of a canal for safe use. However The canal trust advise that you can contact your local council to find out about public waterways that are not used by boating traffic, which should then be okay to use. I’m currently looking into this in Nottingham and will update when i find out more!
https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/canals-and-rivers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_canals_of_the_United_Kingdom
RaftCycle 