FOI request « Kennet and Avon Boating Community Website

Posts Tagged ‘FOI request’

BW transfer order to be examined by five Parliamentary committees

Saturday, March 3rd, 2012

The draft order to transfer BW to charity status will be scrutinised by five Parliamentary committees and in addition has to be agreed by both houses of Parliament. This means that there will be opportunities to lobby Parliament about the risks of homelessness for boat dwellers of the move to the Canal and River Trust (CRT), in particular to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee. In addition, there is still time to object to the registration of the CRT to the Charity Commission, as the application to register the charity has not yet been submitted.

Tags: Canal and River Trust, DEFRA, FOI request
Posted in News | No Comments »

BW never intended K and A mooring strategy meetings to continue

Monday, February 27th, 2012

On 28 November 2011, BW’s Damian Kemp informed members of the Local Mooring Strategy Steering Group by email that there would be no more meetings and that BW would complete the Mooring Strategy in-house. Yet this message has turned out to be entirely dishonest – BW had already planned in September 2011 that the October 2011 meeting was to be the last.

BW and Councils at odds over turbidity

Saturday, October 29th, 2011

A row has been simmering since the Spring about the problem of turbidity on the eastern K and A. Wiltshire Councillors have accused BW of violating the Heritage Lottery Fund contract after BW agreed with Natural England not to issue any more hire boat licences on the eastern end of the canal.

BW blocks FOI request about continuous cruising case law

Monday, October 17th, 2011

BW claimed in its reply to the River Lea mooring plan consultation responses that it had case law to support its statement that its draconian proposals for mooring restrictions did not threaten boat dwellers’ human rights. Boater Simon Robbins made a Freedom of Information request to BW in September asking for copies of the relevant judgements. BW refused Simon’s FOI request. You can read the correspondence here.

BW denies seeking extra enforcement powers but draft byelaws show otherwise

Thursday, July 28th, 2011

BW has claimed that despite discussing “the possibility of introducing greater enforcement powers for BW as part of the new legislation” at its January 2011 Board meeting, it is not seeking extra enforcement powers through its amendment (99A) to the Public Bodies Bill (which will transfer BW to charity status). BW’s Legal Director Nigel Johnson reported back to BW’s May Board meeting that this would not be possible and the appropriate method of seeking change to BW’s enforcement powers was by an Order under the Transport and Works Act 1992 – in other words, a Statutory Instrument. To our knowledge, BW has not used the Transport and Works Act Order process in the past to gain additional powers. The only way to successfully object to a Transport and Works Act Order is to bring a Judicial Review. Public consultation is not obligatory.

Save Our Waterways – from liveaboard scum!!

Monday, February 28th, 2011

Documents obtained via Freedom of Information show that BW has recruited Will Chapman, the driving force behind Save Our Waterways, to set up local mooring strategies led by “well-informed boaters who are also parish councillors” as Sally Ash reported in December at the Kennet and Avon local mooring strategy meeting. We understand that Mr Chapman is a Parish Councillor in Alrewas.

In doing this BW has presented local mooring strategies as a key part of BW’s move to charity status, which assumes there will be considerable input from local (settled) communities into the governance of the charity on a local level. Sally Ash gave a presentation to Lichfield District Parish Forum on 24 January which blurred the boundaries between “local mooring strategy steering groups” and the overall local governance of the new charity. This will undoubtedly cause problems. On the Kennet and Avon, where a trial local structure is being piloted, there is a clear distinction between the Local Mooring Strategy Steering Group, which has a time-limited job to do, and the Kennet and Avon Canal Partnership Board, which is an ongoing local management board.

Boaters invited to consider joining new Kennet and Avon Partnership Board

Thursday, February 3rd, 2011

Two boaters attended an informal meeting on 3 February for people who have expressed their interest in becoming involved in the pilot Kennet and Avon Canal Partnership Board. Previously, there had been some doubt whether liveaboard boaters who had applied to the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust to be on the new Board would be welcome. However, liveaboard boaters made it clear that they should be represented on the new Board. It remains to be seen whether their presence at the meeting will lead to formal membership.

Profit and prejudice

Tuesday, October 12th, 2010

Our busy freedom of information bees have turned up yet more evidence that the local mooring strategy is inspired by a vicious combination of prejudice against liveaboard boaters and BW’s desire to extract the maximum profit wherever it can.

BANES Council to employ boat checker

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

From correspondence below, obtained via Freedom of Information from Bath and NE Somerset Council, it looks like BW and BANES are paying jointly for an extra boat checker. This appears to be instigated partly by Councillor Ian Dewey of Bathampton, who has been a key mover in efforts to move liveaboard boaters off the canal.

The “concerns” expressed take no account of the fact that the Mooring Guidance for Continuous Cruisers is not a legal requirement and clearly states that it does not have the force of law. Unlike the 14-day rule in Section 17 of the British Waterways Act, BW does not have the legal power to enforce it. In one of the emails, David Lawrence, BANES Deputy Director for Heritage Services, says he does not think there is a problem. It is not clear whether this extra staff appointment is going ahead permanently, as the original contract seems to have been for this summer. However, we do wonder whether this is a good use of a cash-strapped Local Authority’s money, as responsibility for enforcement on the canal lies with BW.

The information in these emails seems to imply that BW is bypassing whatever the local mooring strategy would decide – this has gone ahead before the local mooring strategy inquiry panel has even started meeting.

The emails are here. Banes enforcement 1 Banes enforcement 2 Banes enforcement 3 Banes enforcement 4 Banes enforcement 5 Banes enforcement 6 Banes enforcement 7 Banes enforcement 8

Tags: BANES Council, continuous cruiser, Damian Kemp, enforcement team, FOI request, Section 17, Waterways Act 1995
Posted in BW Policy News and FOI Act Requests, Continuous Cruisers, News | No Comments »

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:

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