The Politick

Where it can be said or thought.

Boaters provide information to BANES and Wiltshire long-term planning strategy.

Wednesday, February 9th, 2011

We have submitted information on the situation, rights and needs of liveaboard boaters for the Core Strategies being drafted by Bath and NE Somerset and Wiltshire Councils.

What’s the Core Strategy? It’s the policy that guides local planning over the next 20 years or so. A boater met with one of the planning officers involved in drafting Wiltshire’s strategy, and a written response has gone to the public consultation on the BANES core strategy. This was done in response firstly to a proposal by Wiltshire’s Canal Officer that the Local Mooring Strategy should be written into its Core Strategy, and secondly because Bathampton and Claverton Parish Councils have responded to the BANES consultation with proposals that would have an adverse impact on liveaboard boaters.

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Photo: Bob Naylor KAcanalTIMES.co.uk

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There are thousands of us, and we’re not going to move into houses…

Wednesday, February 9th, 2011

There’s going to be a census this year – it happens every 10 years. The census day is 27 March. We understand that census forms will be sent out by post this time, rather than being delivered by hand. If you have a postal address, especially if you are registered to vote, you will probably get a form. If you don’t have a postal address, you can call the census helpline on 0300 0201 101 from 4 March to get one, and you can arrange to have it sent to a postal address or possibly hand-delivered to you at a location of your choice.

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Boat Dwellers’ Charter

Friday, November 26th, 2010

The Local Mooring Strategy Steering Group has wasted a lot of time talking about its ‘vision’ for the Kennet and Avon Canal. We thought it would be useful to make this statement of our aims in a Boat Dwellers’ Charter. Please give us your comments!

Boat Dwellers’ Charter

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The full presentation to the Area Board

Friday, January 29th, 2010

Presentation to Wiltshire Council Bradford on Avon Area Board, 21 January 2010, by Kennet and Avon boaters.

The boating community is going to present the moral, legal and business arguments concerning the British Waterways consultation on local mooring strategies.

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Boaters – use your vote.

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

Something that us boaters may or may not be aware of is that we still have the right to vote even though we are “of no fixed abode”.

By filling in the declaration of local interest form and sending it back to a local council you can get added to the electoral roll (although not for credit purposes), all you need is a care of postal address for the forms to be sent to. The same form will cover you if you want to be registered under BANES, Wiltshire or Reading Councils.

http://kanda.boatingcommunity.org.uk/downloads/boater-registration.pdf

Why bother? Well, its up to personal choice, but its our right to have it and it means we get our say.

By the way, this info doesn’t go to BW as its a separate government body, so saying where you most often moor cannot get in the way of your right to continuously cruise.

Director’s bonuses, result

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

Earlier in the year, a number of Freedom of Information Act requests resulted in a lot of questions about dubious practice in the matter of British Waterway’s Directors’ bonuses, something that is heavily dependent of the meeting of targets but also keeping their customers sweet.

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