2013 winter mooring permits have been designed to prevent boaters complying with enforcement notices and promote roving mooring permits
CRT appears determined to make liveaboard boaters homeless by denying those who have been subjected to enforcement the opportunity to comply by taking a winter mooring. CRT has changed the way that it operates winter moorings and boaters who have received a CC1, CC2 or CC3 enforcement letter will be prevented from taking a winter mooring. Previously, boaters who had received one of these letters could avoid further enforcement action and comply with CRT’s demands if they took a winter mooring.
CRT states “Permits will be sold only to continuous cruisers registered with us as at 15th June 2013. Not available to boaters already in our enforcement process in receipt of CC1, CC2 or CC3 letters”. Given that CRT/BW never informs boaters when they cease to be in the enforcement process or when the CC1, CC2 or CC3 ceases to apply, this means that a significant number of boaters who do comply with the law by travelling to a different place every 14 days will be denied the opportunity to take a CRT winter mooring should they wish to do so.
These changes also appear to be aimed at persuading boaters to accept the principle of Roving Mooring Permits by removing fixed locations for all winter moorings outside London. In addition, boaters with moorings who wish to leave or live on their boat in another location will no longer be able to rent a CRT winter mooring. The one advantage, for some boaters, of these changes is that boats with winter mooring permits outside London will not be able to use visitor moorings. The sale of lengths of visitor moorings as winter moorings has inconvenienced many.
However, there are other boaters who rented CRT/BW winter moorings specifically because they were on a hard, well-maintained edge where it is not necessary to use a plank, often with good road access and access to shops and other facilities. Many of these boaters were elderly or disabled, and they could now be at risk of accidents or injuries as a result of not being able to get on and off their boats easily in icy weather.
You can read CRT’s announcement on winter moorings here http://canalrivertrust.org.uk/boating/mooring/winter-moorings
See also
Tags: continuous cruising, disability, enforcement, liveaboards, roving mooring permits, winter moorings