BW Policy News and FOI Act Requests « Kennet and Avon Boating Community Website

BW Policy News and FOI Act Requests

It’s happening now. At the moment much discussion is going on about the corporate stance, both published and secret, of British Waterways and we are getting material flooding in. It will be heard here. The results of Freedom of Information Act requests will be also be aired here. Keep them coming.

Payments from Local Councils to BW amount to £550,000

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

At one of the meetings between boaters, BW and Wiltshire Council Ken Oliver, Wiltshire Council’s Canal Officer, made a comment about the amount of money that Councils pay each year to BW. Wanting to know the amounts and what this money was for I made FOI requests to BW, Wiltshire Council, B&NES and West Berkshire Council, asking for amounts that they had paid to or received from BW in the last five years.

As usual, the figures received from the Councils and from BW don’t match, but judging from the recent totally inaccurate FOI replies from BW I feel it is more likely the Council ones are accurate. The amounts in total come to a massive £552,955 paid to BW over a five-year period.

Kennet and Avon Canal Trust AGM decisions made by only 50 members

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

A boater recently obtained the last 3 years AGM minutes from the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust, which is going to be working with BW in the management of the canal in a pilot project to try out BW’s proposed new charitable status. An average of only about 50 people voted and attended so if a lot of boaters joined up we could affect the Trust’s decisions. See our previous articles about the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust for the full details.

The minutes can be found here k & a trust minutes 2007-2009

Tags: Kennet and Avon Canal Trust
Posted in BW Policy News and FOI Act Requests, Opinion | No Comments »

BW pledge to eliminate overstaying in two years

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

An article in the August 2010 Waterways World quotes one of the BW Directors, Simon Salem, who said that in the past two years BW has more or less eliminated licence evasion and the task for BW enforcement now is to eliminate overstaying “within two years”.

Unfortunately Simon’s statement is contradicted by Sally “Foot in Mouth” Ash, who works in his department at BW HQ.

BW to revive roving mooring permit idea

Thursday, July 8th, 2010

We have just obtained via Freedom of Information the minutes of a meeting on 28 May between BW and a number of boating organisations such as NABO, the RBOA and the IWA about the results of the recent consultations on moorings policy and local mooring strategies. APCO, the trade body for the hire boat industry, was also at the meeting. Not only do these minutes make it even clearer that the local mooring strategies are going to specifically target boats without moorings:

“The strategies should define how far a boater must move in order to comply with BW CC guidance”.

These minutes also reveal that BW is reviving the idea of the Roving Mooring Permit:

BW and the K and A Trust: After the apology, the answers!

Thursday, July 8th, 2010

I have now had a response from BW to my request for an internal review of its refusal to send me minutes of meetings with the K&A Trust. Here it is:

Further to Caroline Killeavy’s correspondence with you I am responding to your request for all documents regarding: …“Please could you send me the minutes or notes of all meetings between British Waterways and the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust which took place between 1 January 2009 and 23 March 2010. Please could you send me copies of all email correspondence and notes of telephone calls and conversations to British Waterways from the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust between 1 January 2009 and 23 March 2010. Please could you send me copies of all email correspondence and notes of telephone calls and conversations to the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust from British Waterways between 1 January 2009 and 23 March 2010. Please could you send me a list of the dates, times, locations and attendees of meetings between British Waterways and the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust between 1 January 2009 and 23 March 2010.”

Report of Community Involvement in Managing Local Moorings meeting

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

The meeting on June 1st about Community Involvement in Managing Local Moorings was organised by Wiltshire Council to discuss BW’s proposals for a local mooring strategy between Bath and Devizes. About 150 people attended. Damian Kemp was the only BW representative there. The meeting was chaired by Councillor Fleur de Rhé Phillippe.

Damian announced that BW would be going ahead with its plan for a local mooring strategy for the western Kennet and Avon between Bath and Devizes. He explained how the local mooring strategy steering group would work.

“The politest climb down I’ve ever seen” – BW promises to release minutes of meetings with K&A Trust

Friday, June 18th, 2010

A boater recently appealed against BW’s refusal to provide information and minutes of meetings which had taken place with the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust (see previous article on this web site “I don’t believe it” http://kanda.boatingcommunity.org.uk/wordpress/?p=831 ). This is the apology she received from Caroline Killeavy, BW’s Head of Customer Relations:

“Thank you for your email of 7th June requesting a formal review of the information we previously supplied to you. Your second email has been very helpful to us in that it now specifically identifies the meetings which you are interested in.

Chris Grey and I have reviewed the initial response we sent to you and we both agree that in the light of your most recent detailed request the original information supplied to you was insufficient. Please accept my apologies for this. I can reassure you that this was not intentional.

Wiltshire Fire Service offer to help the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

By now you may have met Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service cycling along the towpath giving out fire safety advice and free smoke detectors. They may look a bit like BW staff as they will be wearing the Fire Service uniform of blue shirt, black trousers and also a life jacket, so make sure you don’t mistake them for the boat checkers or enforcement officers, because a smoke detector could save your life, whereas a patrol notice is only useful for starting fires.

On second thoughts, keep the patrol notices and threatening letters, as you may wish to refer to them when making a complaint to BW about unlawful enforcement.

I don’t believe it!

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

A boater made this Freedom of Information request to BW recently:

“Further to the attached Press Release from British Waterways dated 25 May 2010, please could you send me the minutes of the discussions regarding setting up a Waterways Partnership Board for the Kennet and Avon canal, referred to in the press release as:

‘discussions, which also included representatives from the Inland Waterways Association (IWA), the KACT and BW will work together in setting up a Waterways Partnership Board for the canal. ‘

Please could you also send me a copy of the Waterways Partnership agreement between British Waterways, the Kennet and Avon canal trust, and any other parties which are formal partners in this agreement.”

This is what BW’s 25 May 2010 Press Release said:

The “Continuous Cruising Procedure” and CC3 letters

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

A boater recently made a Freedom of Information request about the number of boats BW had either taken to court or removed following a CC3 letter. The CC3 is the letter which terminates the boat licence in what BW like to call the “Continuous cruising procedure”. The boater asked the following questions

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