Posts Tagged ‘BW charity status’
Tuesday, October 4th, 2011
The BW Annual General Meeting is on Thursday October 13th at The Bond Company, 180 -182 Fazeley Street, Digbeth, Birmingham B5 5SE at 10.30am to 3.30pm. BW is a public body and members of the public are entitled to go. You don’t have to be a representative of an organisation. This year’s meeting will be an opportunity to ask the Transition Trustees questions, for example how the new waterways charity proposes to safeguard the rights of liveaboard boaters and protect them from unlawful enforcement, summary eviction and homelessness.
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Tags: British Waterways, BW charity status, liveaboards, meeting, Robin Evans
Posted in Events, News, The Politick | No Comments »
Monday, September 26th, 2011
The Public Bill Committee is not likely to consider the transfer of British Waterways to charity status until after 10th October when it will examine Schedule 5 of the Public Bodies Bill and BW’s amendment (99A) to the Bill. This means there is another opportunity to lobby the Committee etc. Here are four things you can do.
1. Write to your MP.
2. Write to the 19 MPs on the Public Bill Committee – members have already considered letters they have had on other issues.
3. Submit written evidence to the Committee – members of the public can do this, and some of us have done so already.
4. See your MP at one of their surgeries.
An example letter, contact details for the Committee members, guidance on submitting evidence and how to find MPs surgeries are below.
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Tags: BW charity status, Letters to BW and others, liveaboards
Posted in BW Policy News and FOI Act Requests, Letters to BW and others, News, The Politick | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 20th, 2011
Here is an example response to the second DEFRA consultation on transferring BW to charity status. Despite complaints, the deadline is still 24th October. It’s always best to put responses in your own words, if possible. The example response contains an introductory statement, replies to the questions about England and Wales, and replies to the questions about Scotland. If you answer the questions about Scotland there’s a separate email address for the replies. Please take the time to respond if you can – it’s important that DEFRA is aware of our concerns.
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Tags: BW charity status, DEFRA consultation, FOI requests, liveaboards
Posted in BW Policy News and FOI Act Requests, Letters to BW and others, The Law, The Politick | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 13th, 2011
DEFRA has published a brief analysis of the results of the consultation on moving the inland waterways to charity status, together with the Government’s response to the consultation replies. Considering the complexity of the consultation questions and the magnitude of the decisions to be made, both the summary of replies and the Government’s response are disappointingly lightweight and lacking in detail.
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Tags: British Waterways, BW charity status, DEFRA consultation, liveaboards
Posted in BW Policy News and FOI Act Requests, News | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 13th, 2011
The Public Bodies Bill, which proposes to transfer BW to charity status, is being examined in detail by the Public Bill Committee in the House of Commons. A number of boaters and boating groups submitted written evidence to the Committee, including boaters on the K and A, Grand Union, London waterways and in the North West.
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Tags: British Waterways, BW charity status, Public Bodies Bill
Posted in BW Policy News and FOI Act Requests, News, The Law, The Politick | No Comments »
Monday, August 22nd, 2011
A boaters’ group has proposed that the transfer of British Waterways to charity status would be an ideal opportunity to put in place statutory protection for the homes of all boat dwellers in the UK. Currently there is no legal recognition of the homes of boat dwellers (a boat is a chattel in law) and no statutory protection from eviction.
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Tags: 14 day rule, BW charity status, continuous cruising, equality, liveaboards, NABO, traveller's rights, Waterways Act 1995
Posted in Continuous Cruisers, Lifestyle, Opinion, The Law | 2 Comments »
Saturday, August 20th, 2011
A look at the BW Directors’ targets for 2010-2011 (obtained in a Freedom of Information request) shows that three of the eight executive directors of BW are likely to get bonuses for achieving the move to charity status. The directors’ bonuses are linked to achieving these targets. BW has just announced that in 2011 the Directors will get up to £15,000 each in bonus payments on top of their six-figure salaries. The staff who matter most, who do maintenance and repairs and look after boaters and the waterways every day, will get a paltry £100 or so in comparison.
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Tags: BW charity status, BW directors' bonuses, Robin Evans, Unite the union
Posted in BW Policy News and FOI Act Requests, News | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 9th, 2011
The Public Bodies Bill, which will transfer BW to charity status, will be considered by the Public Bill Committee in the House of Commons between 8 September and 13 October. The Committee will consider the Bill in detail and probably make more amendments. The Committee Chair is David Amess, the Conservative MP for Southend West.
Please write to your own MP as a matter of urgency asking him/ her to make sure that the British Waterways amendment (99A) is deleted from the Bill.
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Tags: BW charity status, continuous cruising, Don Foster
Posted in A-Featured Articles, Continuous Cruisers, Letters to BW and others, News, The Politick | No Comments »