The Stop the Surcharge campaign is hosting a Drop-In session for MPs in Parliament to inform and seek their support regarding the threatened loss of homes, discriminatory surcharge and disproportionate punitive enforcement faced by the community of boat dwellers without home moorings.
Please write to your MP NOW!! and ask him or her to come to the MPs Drop-In session in Parliament on Wednesday 6th November 2024 in Committee Room 3A at 10.30am to 11.30am.
Please ask your family and friends to write to their MPs as well and circulate this message to any other boaters who may be interested.
To find your MP, see http://findyourmp.parliament.uk/ or http://www.writetothem.com/
You will need to enter a postcode. You don’t have to be registered to vote to contact an MP. If you have a postal address, contact the MP for that postcode area. Otherwise just contact the MP for the place you are currently moored, using the postcode of a nearby boatyard, Post Office or pub, and say you live on a boat with no fixed address.
It’s always better to use your own words but below is a template letter:
Dear [MP name]
Campaigners for boat dwellers are hosting a Drop-In session on 6th November for MPs in Parliament to inform and seek their support regarding the threatened loss of homes, discriminatory surcharge and disproportionate punitive enforcement faced by the community of itinerant boat dwellers without a permanent mooring (“Bargee Travellers”).
I am emailing you to invite you to the MPs Drop-In session. The Drop-In will take place on Wednesday 6th November 2024 in Committee Room 3A at 10.30am to 11.30am.
(for MP’s with a canal in their constituency add:
As the MP for [constituency name], which includes the [canal name], at times you will have members of our community living in your constituency.)
[I/ We/ My Family] live on a boat without a permanent mooring as [I am/ we are] entitled to to do by virtue of the British Waterways Act 1995; the Public Right of Navigation; and case law.
Boat dwellers without a permanent mooring have few rights and these are often violated. Our primary concerns at present are:
1) Canal & River Trust (CRT), the body that manages most of the inland waterways in England and Wales, has introduced a surcharge on boat licences without a permanent mooring. Boaters without a permanent mooring are a minority (20%); most live on their boats and they are on the lowest incomes. This disproportionate increase makes the poorest pay more for the same access and will inevitably force many boaters out of their homes.
2) CRT’s enforcement is aggressive and disproportionate. CRT interprets the British Waterways Act 1995 in a way that harasses and intimidates itinerant boat dwellers by threatening them with homelessness, forcing them back onto land and making them the responsibility of already overstretched Local Authorities. The legislation is interpreted in a draconian and punitive way by CRT in order to restrict and refuse boat licence renewals. Unlicensed boats can be seized by CRT.
3) We seek the support of MPs and Peers to bring CRT to account, to ensure CRT drops the discriminatory licence fee surcharge, and to reverse CRT’s damaging policies and practices towards itinerant boat dwellers. We ask MPs and Peers to bring forward the proposed Bill for the Recognition of Rights of and Protection for Boat Dwellers initiated by Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer.
We have a committee room 3A booked for a Drop-In session on 6th November 2024 from 10.30am to 11.30am where we will be discussing these concerns in more detail. Please feel free to drop in and meet us.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
Tags: Bargee Traveller's Association, continuous cruising, enforcement, licence surcharge, liveaboards, MPs, Parliament