The first meeting of the Local Mooring Strategy steering group for the western Kennet and Avon took place on 26 August in County Hall, Trowbridge. As you will see from the documents below which BW circulated before the meeting, most of the changes that BW want to make, that will have a big impact on our lives, will not be up for discussion in the local mooring strategy.
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Continuous Cruisers
The original reason this website was set up, the campaign by British Waterways to remove all liveaboard boaters from the Kennet and Avon who have no permanent mooring. The so-called continuous cruisers.
BW say policy changes won’t be up for discussion in Local Mooring Strategy
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010Local Mooring Strategy Inquiry Panel to hold first meeting
Tuesday, August 17th, 2010A 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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BANES Council to employ boat checker
Tuesday, August 17th, 2010From 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
Payments from Local Councils to BW amount to £550,000
Thursday, July 15th, 2010At one of the meetings between boaters, BW and Wiltshire Council Ken Oliver, Wiltshire Council’s Canal Officer, made a comment about the amount of money that Councils pay each year to BW. Wanting to know the amounts and what this money was for I made FOI requests to BW, Wiltshire Council, B&NES and West Berkshire Council, asking for amounts that they had paid to or received from BW in the last five years.
As usual, the figures received from the Councils and from BW don’t match, but judging from the recent totally inaccurate FOI replies from BW I feel it is more likely the Council ones are accurate. The amounts in total come to a massive £552,955 paid to BW over a five-year period.
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Bradford on Avon Area Board to discuss mooring strategy
Thursday, July 15th, 2010The local mooring strategy will be discussed at the Wiltshire Council Bradford on Avon Area Board on 21st July at Westwood Social Club, Leslie Rise, Lower Westwood. Please attend if you can. The venue is open from 6.30pm and the meeting starts at 7pm. The minutes and other information from the Bradford on Avon Area Board can be found at
http://cms.wiltshire.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=220&MId=799&Ver=4
See also http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/communityandliving/areaboards.htm for information about all the Area Boards.
Boaters attend Wiltshire Area Board meetings
Thursday, July 15th, 2010Boaters have attended the Wiltshire Council Area Board Meetings at Trowbridge and Pewsey recently. Here’s a report from the Trowbridge Area Board on 1st July.
Wiltshire Council’s canal officer Ken Oliver gave a brief update on the outcome of the recent meeting between BW, boaters and Wiltshire Council in Devizes on 1 June. He only spoke for about 5 minutes as Councillor Osborn had somewhat hijacked the meeting due to being unhappy about a £500,000 hole in library budgets.
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BW pledge to eliminate overstaying in two years
Thursday, July 15th, 2010An article in the August 2010 Waterways World quotes one of the BW Directors, Simon Salem, who said that in the past two years BW has more or less eliminated licence evasion and the task for BW enforcement now is to eliminate overstaying “within two years”.
Unfortunately Simon’s statement is contradicted by Sally “Foot in Mouth” Ash, who works in his department at BW HQ.
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B&NES Council include boat dwellers in traveller strategy
Thursday, July 8th, 2010We have heard recently that the group within Bath and NE Somerset Council which deals with travellers has got permission from the Strategic Directors to include boat dwellers in its work on Gypsies & Travellers. One of the B&NES officers responsible for its work with travellers says ”We will be making sure that this is reflected in our work as a group from now on”.
BW to revive roving mooring permit idea
Thursday, July 8th, 2010We 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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Report of Community Involvement in Managing Local Moorings meeting
Thursday, June 24th, 2010The meeting on June 1st about Community Involvement in Managing Local Moorings was organised by Wiltshire Council to discuss BW’s proposals for a local mooring strategy between Bath and Devizes. About 150 people attended. Damian Kemp was the only BW representative there. The meeting was chaired by Councillor Fleur de Rhé Phillippe.
Damian announced that BW would be going ahead with its plan for a local mooring strategy for the western Kennet and Avon between Bath and Devizes. He explained how the local mooring strategy steering group would work.
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