Tacet

If the batteries are not charging after fiddling around in the engine bay to fix the diesel leak, my first guess would be that a connection has been disturbed. Only rarely do I fix one thing without breaking another.

It's not uncommon to see a sign stating that a door must be kept closed at all times; seems a waste of a door to me. And as for "Dogs must be carried on the escalator" .....

Fair enough. £1.9bn is what the Treasury unwisely lent to Woking Council - which won't be repaid. So, in that sense, it has probably been spent already.

Was it not you (I am genuinely unsure) that, not so long ago,advanced lengthy suggestions on how best to increase the licence fees to cover the funding gap?

Presumably the flush from the discharge of the lock was insufficient to shift it. Did you then assist more directly?

I doubt that, as it would be simply untrue that pink boats satisfy the board as to cruising patterns. CRT would be in with a better chance of saying it was satisfied with the applicant's future intentions if it agreed to have a tracker screwed to the side of the boat. And not satisfied, if the applicant refused.

It would not look good if CRT accepted payment to turn a blind eye to the 14 day rule in one licence period and then claimed to be satisfied as to the future compliance with the same rule in the next, when it was (perhaps) pretty sure the applicant would do the same again. Anyone who was brought to task for non-compliance (in reality for not making the additional payment) would have a good case for crying foul. Simply not worth it

Taking away a licence would be an additional step, which would only add to the task and probably involve questions as to the merits of the T&C's. Much simpler to refuse a new application. Ice, stoppages and illness are all potentially valid reasons for such longer period than 14 days, as per the Act. So CRT would be wise to look to the next culprit, other than where it was super-demonstrable that the holder was having a complete laugh. I feel that CRT would be making a lot of trouble for itself it it offered to drop action to remove a licence on payment. As I say above, I certainly don't think it can be influenced in deciding whether or not it is satisfied etc by some additional cash. In making that decision, it is in a quasi- judicial position. Whilst the Court could not substitute its own view, it will require CRT to be Wednesbury reasonable and payment is a very poor indicator of such.

I'm not sure that do-they- move(comply) or not is a regular feature of s8 proceedings for those instances that reach the courts. It may be a factor in deciding which cases are taken, of course. I would expect that gathering evidence to be the least of the problems faced. Having identified the suspects from the usual monitoring, it shouldn't be too much trouble to watch the very few vessels that proceed to firm enforcement. There are sufficient blatant cases to mean it is not sensible to pursue the borderline ones yet.

I agree - other than it is you will be a good boy. Tangentially, it is sometimes suggested that the Board can be capricious in its being satisfied, which I don't accept. For example, I don't think it is available to the Board to be satisfied solely because you paid an additional £1000 per annum.

To be honest, it did occur to me that enforcement might be a problem, but I didn't like to say.

Not quite. The applicant has to satisfy the board that the vessel will be used etc throughout the consent period. Not is or was used. No doubt track record can be a factor in satisfying the board as to future behaviour.

In an attempt to summarise, IanDs proposal is broadly equivalent to CRT providing additional permanent moorings out of town. Then all that needs to be done is to persuade those who currently CM in the popular locations (free of charge) to take up the new moorings in unpopular locations and, of course, pay for them. If anyone can see a problem, tell Ian.

In the1970s we had a ex-teleprinter (like a typewriter) somehow connected to a TRS 80. It sort-of worked but needed to be in another room because it was that noisy. We could only dream of dot matrix and daisywheel printers.

That's odd. There are more paraffin irons than electric in my house.

Paraffin fuelled irons are available....

Agreed. Those privatised water companies are renowned for spending shareholders cash on upgrading the infrastructure, for no good reason. And what's the point of resilient water supplies anyway?