A boater recently made this Freedom of Information request to BW and got the answer below which suggests that most of the pending legal action against boaters is about licence evasion rather than overstaying, and that BW may be carrying out unlawful enforcement action against 8 boats without home moorings.The questions asked were: the number of boats on the Kennet and Avon Canal which have legal action pending; the nature of this legal action; the reasons for this legal action; the number of these boats which currently have a valid licence and how many with a valid licence do not have a home mooring; the number of these boats which have had their licences terminated by BW and how many of the boats where BW has terminated the licence do not have a home mooring.
The reply from BW:
1. The number of boats on the Kennet and Avon Canal which have legal action pending – 152.
2. the nature of this legal action –
Licensing Enforcement – 119;
Mooring Enforcement – 15;
Overstay Enforcement – 7;
Continuous Cruising Enforcement – 8; and
Other – 3.
3. the reasons for this legal action – I refer you to our response to point 2 above.
4. the number of these boats which currently have a valid licence – 29.
5. and how many with a valid licence do not have a home mooring – 20.
6. the number of these boats which have had their licences terminated by BW – 1.
7. and how many of the boats where BW has terminated the licence do not have a home mooring – 1.
Tags: continuous cruising, enforcement team, FOI requests, patrol notices, Section 17, Waterways Act 1995
But from their own figures BW have only removed one license.
One boat today, one boat tomorrow, another boat next week, and so on…
Many cases involve unreasonable denial of licence as a counterclaim
Care to elaborate on these figures ? I wondered what the FoI requester was attempting to ascertain with the later questions?
I’m certainly wondering what the three “other” cases are?