BW Policy News and FOI Act Requests « Kennet and Avon Boating Community Website

BW Policy News and FOI Act Requests

It’s happening now. At the moment much discussion is going on about the corporate stance, both published and secret, of British Waterways and we are getting material flooding in. It will be heard here. The results of Freedom of Information Act requests will be also be aired here. Keep them coming.

Boaters respond to BW’s new policies

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

We have just sent BW the message below in response to its draft policies for mooring along the banks of BW waterways.

General Comments

The rationale behind the policies on short-term towpath mooring is to force boaters without moorings to pay more. BW makes this clear in its response to proposals by BWAF on revenue generation dated August 2010. In response to BWAF’s proposal for “Continuous Cruisers to pay more”, BW replied “The new approach to local mooring strategies is the beginning of this process. It is a top priority to develop this and the involvement of user groups including those represented on BWAF is vital”.

The fact that most of the proposed changes are not included in the local mooring strategy but in the national policies means that the local strategy will not be local but imposed from above. If implemented, the new policies affecting liveaboard boaters without moorings will result in large-scale homelessness.

BW say policy changes won’t be up for discussion in Local Mooring Strategy

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

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.

Apply NOW to be a board member on the Kennet and Avon Canal Partnership!

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

The Kennet and Avon Canal Trust and British Waterways are asking local people and organisations to nominate interested individuals to become volunteer board members on the new Waterway Partnership Board. The deadline is very soon. It’s really important that as many boaters as possible volunteer to be on the board of the partnership so that we are properly represented. Contact administrator@katrust.org.uk by Friday 27 August 2010 to nominate yourself.

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.

BANES Council to employ boat checker

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

From 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

Tags: BANES Council, continuous cruiser, Damian Kemp, enforcement team, FOI request, Section 17, Waterways Act 1995
Posted in BW Policy News and FOI Act Requests, Continuous Cruisers, News | No Comments »

Mark Stephens’ emails

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

Following our incomplete story, BW and the K and A Trust: After the apology, the answers! (July 2010 posts), we have received the emails between Mark Stephens, K&A Manager, and the Trust, requested using Freedom of Information. These emails include the draft minutes of the User Group meeting on 29 April. They also show Mark talking about the boaters’ towpath tidy, saying how pleased he is that people are volunteering without being asked, but also saying that some control is needed. Mark, if you’re reading this, one of the people organising the clean-up tried many times to talk to you on the phone to ask permission to do this, with no joy. So we went ahead and tidied the towpath anyway.

The emails also show that the main focus of the Trust’s partnership with BW is the use of volunteers to carry out maintenance of the canal. A good reason to get involved methinks. It doesn’t look like the Trust will be involved with enforcement, but we still don’t know what the partnership agreement actually says. At the last request for it, we were told it hadn’t yet been drawn up.

The emails are here. Mark Stephens emails 1 Mark Stephens emails 2 Mark Stephens emails 3 Mark Stephens emails 4 Mark Stephens emails 5 Mark Stephens emails 6

Mark Stephens emails and draft UGM minutes

Mark Stephens emails and K&A Trust volunteer tasks

Tags: British Waterways, Damian Kemp, FOI requests, Kennet and Avon Canal Trust, Mark Stephens
Posted in BW Policy News and FOI Act Requests | No Comments »

Payments from Local Councils to BW amount to £550,000

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

At 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.

Kennet and Avon Canal Trust AGM decisions made by only 50 members

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

A boater recently obtained the last 3 years AGM minutes from the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust, which is going to be working with BW in the management of the canal in a pilot project to try out BW’s proposed new charitable status. An average of only about 50 people voted and attended so if a lot of boaters joined up we could affect the Trust’s decisions. See our previous articles about the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust for the full details.

The minutes can be found here k & a trust minutes 2007-2009

Tags: Kennet and Avon Canal Trust
Posted in BW Policy News and FOI Act Requests, Opinion | No Comments »

BW pledge to eliminate overstaying in two years

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

An 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.

BW to revive roving mooring permit idea

Thursday, July 8th, 2010

We 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:

Kennet and Avon Boating Community Website