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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Posts Tagged ‘continuous cruising’
BW say policy changes won’t be up for discussion in Local Mooring Strategy
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010BW 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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Wiltshire Fire Service offer to help the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust
Thursday, June 10th, 2010By now you may have met Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service cycling along the towpath giving out fire safety advice and free smoke detectors. They may look a bit like BW staff as they will be wearing the Fire Service uniform of blue shirt, black trousers and also a life jacket, so make sure you don’t mistake them for the boat checkers or enforcement officers, because a smoke detector could save your life, whereas a patrol notice is only useful for starting fires.
On second thoughts, keep the patrol notices and threatening letters, as you may wish to refer to them when making a complaint to BW about unlawful enforcement.
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The “Continuous Cruising Procedure” and CC3 letters
Thursday, May 27th, 2010A boater recently made a Freedom of Information request about the number of boats BW had either taken to court or removed following a CC3 letter. The CC3 is the letter which terminates the boat licence in what BW like to call the “Continuous cruising procedure”. The boater asked the following questions
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Consultation stitch-up part 2
Thursday, May 27th, 2010Some boaters have now looked at all the responses to the consultation on Moorings Policy for England and Wales (the national consultation). The responses to this bigger consultation also show a majority opposed to local mooring strategies. Of 161 responses, 88 were against local mooring strategies, 48 in favour, and 25 either did not answer the question or were neither in favour nor against. We are still seeking answers from BW
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Council Tax and Liveaboard Boaters
Tuesday, May 18th, 2010There have been a number of accusations recently that boaters do not pay Council Tax and so should not benefit from local services. This is incorrect. British Waterways pays the Government a composite levy in respect of Council Tax and Business Rates. This is collected centrally and the income is used to offset general central Government payments to local authorities through the Rate Support Grant. Therefore, anyone who pays a boat licence fee to BW contributes to this composite levy in respect of Council Tax.
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BW proposals based on misuse of statistics
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010BW has misrepresented its own statistics in order to make a case for the proposals finalised in the Local Mooring Strategies consultation. These proposals were based on analysis of statistics about “continuous cruisers” presented in the pre-consultation document Updating BW’s Online Mooring Policy (April 2009).
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British Waterways procedure…
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010and a couple of snippets of the ol’ goss.
Obtained by Freedom of Information Act requests, here’s the documents issued to patrol officers dictating the procedures and decision making process regarding the issue of CC1, CC2 and CC3 letters and removal of licence.
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