Around 12 liveaboard boaters attended the meeting of Wilcot Parish Council on 9th January 2024. There was discussion of a letter from a boater to Wiltshire Councillor Paul Oatway objecting that the rubble and earth banks in the lane by the canal were constructed without planning consent and were an unauthorised waste disposition. Two boaters spoke in the public question time. One made it clear how unsafe it is to park in the main village street and walk to her boat with her child in the traffic, and that she believed the removal of the parking was an incident of ‘boatism’ – victimisation of boaters.
Another boater made a formal complaint (later sent in writing) that the Parish Council has abused and exceeded the powers granted to it by the Section 96 (Highways Act 1980) Licence. By building up the bank on both sides of the lane, the Parish Council has deliberately obstructed public access to the verge in the lane between the canal bridge on Alton Road and Cannings Cottage. To obstruct the highway in this manner is a hindrance to the reasonable use of the highway by any person entitled to use it, and is a violation of Section 96(6) the Highways Act 1980. Section 96(6) states that “No … grass verge … shall be planted, laid out or erected under this section, or, if planted, laid out or erected under this section, allowed to remain, in such a situation as to hinder the reasonable use of the highway by any person entitled to use it .…”
She then stated that the planned works to the verge discussed by the Parish Council between 2016 and 2020 included retaining enough parking space so that canal users would not have to park in the village street, and asked “what went wrong?”.
Councillor Paul Oatway of Wiltshire Council (not a parish councillor), who previously told a boater that he did not agree with the removal of parking in the lane, announced that Wiltshire Council’s Highways Department were “involved in this” and were taking steps to look into the matter and would carry out a “full and thorough investigation” and that highways and planning officers would visit the site. He said that the Parish Council should take no action until the investigation was over, and that he would report back to the Parish Council.
Parish Councillors tried hard to reassure boaters that there was no intention to exclude people using the canal and that the intention all along had been to provide hard standing parking areas using scalpings, but stressed that tree roots were being damaged and the lane was being obstructed in the narrow areas.
Following this discussion, the Parish Council went on to discuss the removal of the dog waste bins from the towpath by CRT. Boaters and Parish Councillors were agreed in objecting to this, and boaters explained there was now a lot more dog poo on the towpath, right outside our homes. Boaters then left the meeting.
The minutes of this Wilcot Parish Council meeting will be posted on the Parish Council’s web site here https://wilcotandhuish-pc.gov.uk/
See also
https://kanda.boatingcommunity.org.uk/have-your-say-about-parking-in-wilcot-on-27th-november
https://kanda.boatingcommunity.org.uk/wilcot-parking-trashed/
http://kanda.boatingcommunity.org.uk/why-car-parking-has-become-more-important-for-liveaboards/
Tags: continuous cruising, highways, liveaboards, meeting, parking, Wilcot, Wiltshire County Council