Posts Tagged ‘Wiltshire County Council’

Equality officer advises Mooring Strategy Steering Group

Thursday, April 7th, 2011

Sharon Brookes, Wiltshire Council’s Equality Officer, gave a presentation to the local mooring strategy meeting on 1st April explaining the duties of statutory bodies such as BW to carry out equality impact assessments of their policies. Under the Public Sector Equality Duty in the 2010 Equality Act, BW is required to do an equality impact assessment of the local mooring strategy. This includes an obligation to analyse the impact of new policies on human rights.

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If you didn’t receive a census form…

Sunday, March 27th, 2011

If you haven’t had a census form you can write to Glen Watson, Census Director, 2011 Census, Office for National Statistics, Government Buildings, Cardiff Road, NEWPORT, Gwent NP10 8XG and ask for one to be delivered to an address of your choice or to a place such as a library for you to collect. The number of people living on boats has never been properly counted so filling it in would help. You can also ring the Census helpline on 0300 0201 101.

Last week, a boater complained that the census office said that forms could not be sent to “mailboxes” or non-residential addresses, and as a result the page below appeared on the census web site

http://help.census.gov.uk/england/help/help-and-information/Aboutthequestions/PropertiescoveredbytheCensus/Topics/Mobilehouseholds.html

Mooring strategy meeting saves enforcer a long walk

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011

The sixth meeting of the Kennet and Avon Local Mooring Strategy Steering Group took place on 25 February. Damian Kemp confirmed that BW would be taking ongoing advice about carrying out an Equality Impact Assessment from the Equality Officers of Wiltshire and B&NES, Sharon Brookes and Samantha Jones. Plans were made at this meeting for the group to walk the towpath to consider possible mooring changes. The group established the definitions of some of the terms used by BW which had not been clarified, as follows:

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Boat dwellers excluded from caravan count

Monday, March 14th, 2011

Despite promises from both Wiltshire and Bath and NE Somerset Councils, it appears that the Government has ordered boat dwellers to be excluded from the two-yearly caravan count which took place on 27 January 2011.

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Boater to join K and A Board as Councils struggle with ‘political problems’

Monday, March 7th, 2011

It looks like at least one liveaboard boater will join the pilot Kennet and Avon Waterway Partnership Board. Andrew Harry, who lives on an electric boat, was invited to join the new Board following a selection process which two liveaboard boaters took part in.

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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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Get organised – BW to go ahead with local mooring strategies in other areas.

Tuesday, December 7th, 2010

BW appears to be going ahead with local mooring strategies in other areas which it defines as ‘hotspots’ before the pilot local mooring strategy on the Kennet and Avon Canal has even been drawn up and implemented. As far as we know, these areas are the Lee and Stort, Birmingham, the Macclesfield Canal and the Southern Grand Union.

As we have discovered from the consultations and the subsequent local mooring strategy steering group meetings on the Kennet and Avon, local mooring strategies are likely to be targeted at boats without moorings and especially at liveaboard boaters without moorings.

2-hna1527Photo: Bob Naylor KAcanalTIMES.co.uk

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Boaters’ meeting and local mooring strategy update

Tuesday, October 12th, 2010

About 35 boaters attended the meeting on September 21 and helped to reduce the Georgian Lodge’s surplus of Guinness. At the meeting, boaters agreed a statement of what they wanted from the Local Mooring Strategy:

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Local Mooring Strategy destroys trees

Tuesday, September 28th, 2010

The first two meetings of the Local Mooring Strategy Steering Group took place on 26 August and 21 September. Boaters attended both meetings, and there were also representatives from NABO and the RBOA. Much of the discussion in both meetings focused on whether BW had the legal powers to impose the restrictions they wish, which they have set out in their new policies (see our previous articles on BW’s new policies http://kanda.boatingcommunity.org.uk/wordpress/?p=1014 and http://kanda.boatingcommunity.org.uk/wordpress/?p=1001 ). The Local Mooring Strategy has a very limited remit, basically being about where geographically to impose the new restrictions between Bath and Foxhangers. According to BW, the new policies are not up for discussion. Despite attempts to convince BW that the restrictions they want to impose will be unenforceable if they are not legal, the Chair, BW’s Sally Ash, said at the last meeting that she was not concerned with the law.

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Local Mooring Strategy Inquiry Panel to hold first meeting

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

A boater has been asked to represent unaffiliated boaters (ie those not represented by NABO or RBOA) on the Local Mooring Strategy Inquiry Panel. In February BW agreed to include them on the panel, then later went back on its commitment, but following pressure from NABO and RBOA as well as from other boaters, BW has now included one unaffiliated boater. The first meeting is on 26 August at County Hall, Trowbridge, at 10am.

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