CRT attempted to seize a boat on the K&A on Wednesday 16th October after wrongly denying the boater the opportunity to license the boat. The seizure was prevented by the intervention of the Legal Officer of the National Bargee Travellers Association (NBTA) Nick Brown, who spoke to the police, the boater and a CRT Solicitor on the phone during the attempt to remove the boat. The owner had locked himself inside the boat which had been chained to another boat. The seizure team had begun to tow the boat away despite knowing that the owner was inside the boat. The NBTA intervened after the police had threatened to arrest the boat owner if he did not leave the boat.
The next meeting of the K&A Boaters’ Action Group will be on Monday 10th June 2019 at 7.30pm at the Cross Guns, Avoncliff BA15 2HB. All are welcome. The meeting will continue to focus on supporting boaters faced with enforcement or Section 8’s by CRT.
CRT earlier this year stayed Section 8 cases against two boat dwellers without permanent moorings, Matthew Jones and Christopher McKendrick, following the Court of Appeal judgement in Matthew Jones’s favour on 7th March 2017, we can now reveal. The Consent Order sealed by Bristol County Court on 23rd May 2017 shows that CRT reached a settlement with Matthew Jones. Both Mr Jones and Mr McKendrick have now re-licensed their boats without a permanent mooring. Their homes are not now under threat of being seized by the charity. Both had been deemed by CRT not to have moved “far enough”.
Yesterday (16th August 2017) CRT seized a boat that was a vulnerable person’s home using its powers under Sections 8 and 13 of the British Waterways Acts 1983 and 1971. The boat was craned out at Devizes Wharf at 11am and taken to an unknown location by road. There were 8 bailiffs and enforcement staff present. UPDATE: It has been reported that the evicted person is now sleeping rough.
Yesterday (16th May 2017) CRT seized a boat from Bishops Cannings and craned it out at the Black Horse in Devizes. The fibreglass cruiser, appeared to be unoccupied when six bailiffs started push-towing it with a dark green dory at around 10am to the Black Horse, where an A. B. Tuckey’s crane and flatbed truck were waiting.
K&A boater Matthew Jones yesterday won his appeal against CRT’s attempt to strike out the Article 8 elements of his defence against eviction from CRT’s waterways under Section 8 of the British Waterways Act 1983. The case will now be remitted back to Bristol County Court where Mr Jones will be able to put his Article 8 arguments in full. Mr Jones’s solicitor Community Law Partnership writes:
On 14th September CRT seized a boat without a home mooring that was a vulnerable woman’s home while she was asleep inside it. The woman, who suffers from epilepsy, was later rushed to hospital in an ambulance as the stress of the eviction had caused her condition to become critical.
Our roving reporter, R Mutt has sent us this report of a disturbing incident that shows how easy it is for people to fall through the cracks in society if we don’t, as a community, pay careful attention to the needs of everyone.
Off the Cut, Wendy Zakiewicz’s moving documentary about a Kennet and Avon boater’s struggle against being made homeless through the actions of CRT, provides a unique insight into a community of boaters living on the Kennet and Avon canal.
The film follows a family on their pedal powered boat as they embark on a journey in which their way of life, and that of the whole community, comes under threat.
Here is the internal CRT document that outlines the process by which a customer is required to take out a short term licence and the steps from there to a Section 8 action.
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