Jerra
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Posts posted by Jerra
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Off topic I know but paths are not anywhere as near a diverse habitat (home) due to them being walked on so not a good example.
On the contrary, that was exactly my point.
If we are talking wildlife you aren't supposed to be picking wild flowers either.
Oh, for heaven's sake, this is becoming ridiculous.
I must be being thick (well thicker than usual) this morning. I can't see your point you seem to imply that because onepart of the environment is poor habitat it doesn't matter if the value of another area is reduced. I would suggest that as we make more and more of the land into a poor wildlife habitat it is even more important that we leave undisturbed what we can.
Your last point about things becoming ridiculous I do to a point agree if you are capable of identifying the flower and know how common/rare it is fine you will do little if any harm. However in my experience there are a lot of people (the majority?) who can't name more than a couple of dozen wild flowers. I have seen people picking (sorry I should say having picked) rare wild flowers not knowing what they are destroying. Each rare flower picked is a seeding opportunity lost.
Somebody is bound to pop upand say well if I can see a big clump it will be OK. Not necessarily so. Many many years ago when I was training we were out on some field work and the lecturer was pointing out to the group a "rare" fern. I had difficulty spotting it so asked him to point it out. I hadn't spotted it because I had grown up with clumps of it near my home and didn't consider it rare. However nationally it was. If somebody had inadvertently destroyed the clumps near me then the chances of spread/recolonisation would have been reduced.
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I have heard a couple of stories, that may or may not be true, where a council has approached a boater, or a boatyard with residents, and asked for council tax. Yes please they replied, we would love to pay council tax, but please can you turn our muddy access track into a proper road with tarmac, and some street lights would be rather nice too.
The council replied...we have re-assessed your case and don't think you need to pay council tax!
............Dave
Surely the council shouldn't even have to consider putting in roads and lights on private ground, which the road to marina will almost certainly be. It also implies the residents never set foot (or tyre) on a road or pavement and don't benefit from the other things provided by the council.
IMO the council were weak if they couldn't reasonably counter that argument.
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if you really care you need to direct your own well focussed complaints to your MP and MEP - but few will bother to go that far.
If you don't know who you should be writing to this site will tell you.
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Can I just say that the canals are not adopted by councils if we start paying council tax then the local council will have to take responsibility for the tow paths and the repair of the canals. C&RT only pay for the removal of refuse by way of contract and a duty of care certificate. I know some people pay council tax on permanent mooring because they are classed as a home.
May be I am miss interpreting what you are saying but to me you imply the council spends no money on you. I suppose you never go along a road to the pub, I am sure part of the police and other emergency services is paid by the council so they do expend some money on your behalf.
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. Indeed every log you pick up is a home for something, but so is every path you tread and every bunch of flowers you pick.Off topic I know but paths are not anywhere as near a diverse habitat (home) due to them being walked on so not a good example.
If we are talking wildlife you aren't supposed to be picking wild flowers either.
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What's with the sulpheric acid claim, any sience behind that?
If I remember my schoolboy science it goes something like this.
Burn anything which contains sulphur (Many things do and coal certainly does) and you get Sulphur dioxide SO2 this combines with water H2O to make Sulphurous Acid H2SO3 which then combines with Oxygen O creating Sulphuric Acid H2SO4
Somebody will probably be along and explain it more accurately.
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But what about their human rights?
They have the right to sink their own boat if they want to!
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eBay allows you to block bidders with minus feedback - that is how my account is setup.
Lots of sellers (including me) will allow bids from people with no feedback at all. Not to do so is technically against eBay's terms of use.
Thank you.
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(must have X feedback, nobody outside the UK, no non-payer etc),
I don't buy or sell on ebay but this intrigues me. I do look at things on ebay and wonder how anybody is supposed to build up the required feedback when so many refuse to take bids unless you have the feed back.
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When they knock on a pensioner's door and steal their under-bed savings. Can't see anyone doing that without nefarious leanings.
Basically as soon as they use the impersonation to benefit themselves, i should think. Then there's dangerous misleading, which would be misuse of assumed (wrongly) authority.
So isn't there a possibility this person is leading towards that sort of nefarious behaviour. The reports I have seen mention money and piloting boats.
This gives the opportunity to "case the joint" and or commit an opportunist crime. Scenario - once on board "piloting" can I use your loo, a few seconds below picks up smart phone reappears and says I nip off at the next bridge hole.
I am well aware that there are many people who are well meaning and like to help at locks (I might be one myself if I lived near a canal) but I am amazed at how it is automatically assumed there is no harm in this case.
There was a huge outcry in a recent thread about finding a man on board uninvited, to me this is potentially (from a theft point of view) similar except he has been invited on board.
OK maybe I am just a suspicious grumpy old sod.
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I don't think there's any law of the land saying that its illegal to pretend to be from CRT. There may well be waterways byelaws and rules against it and it is obviously heavily frowned on by CRT.
An interesting point. It made me wonder at what point does it become illegal to impersonate - say water board worker, meter reader, gas man etc?
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But is IS within their (CRT's) powers to say when 'the board is satisfied'.
Perhaps she means they can never get the board to agree (a bit like some debates on here).
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I think you will find it's maize, not sweetcorn, totally inedible unless made into flour.
Sweet corn and maize I think you will find are both varieties of Zea mays. However like many cultivated crops different varieties have different characteristics e.g. the amount of sugar.
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I applaud the spirit of adventure but I think I read somewhere that 95% of the rivers (and lakes?) in England are not accessible to the public. You need to come up to Scotland where it is 100%. I regularly see canoeists on our local river with their camping gear and feel a little envious of the sense of freedom it implies but I get the impression it's very frustrating in England.
I can speak about rivers that are navigations but in England (for rivers that aren't navigation) you should have the permission of the riperian rights owner. I would also suggest you keep well clear of fly fishermen they get very stroppy and can cast very intimidatingly. I know various Lakes in the Lake District limit the number/type of boats allowed e.g. Wastwater 15 rowing boats IIRC but I am unaware of any saying no canoes.
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Out cruising on our boat. The one thing in 'nature' that has struck a chord is the amount of Japanese Knotweed, Balsam and Buddleia that line the banks of the inland waterways. Now, you might think with CaRT getting all touchy feely over ecological and environmental issues. The invasive stuff would be high on the agenda of protecting hundreds of miles of waterways habitat, rather than voles and shrews. Or maybe Great Nature Watch is a bit of lip service to placate the punters.
Sorry I need this explained a little for me. How is the buddleia threatening the waterways? Little short of a nuclear attack is going to shift the Knotweed, once it is there it will be very expensive to even try to eradicate let alone succeed. I can imagine the howls of dismay at tens if not hundreds of thousands being spent on trying to clear the banks rather than say dredging or lock maintenance. The Balsam will as far as the watercourses are concerned (rather than natural habitat) only be a problem where there is a chance of running water eroding the bare earth exposed in winter - less of a problem on canals than rivers.
Perhaps the survey will help to do two things - alert the CRT to problems and help to draw in interested people. Volunteers can do a lot towards Balsam control by hand.
Where in the survey does it indicate voles and shrews are of special interest or is this just your imagination?
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I downloaded this app and can't see the point.
There are relatively few options for the description of the canal at a particular location, and incredibly few animals, (89?), the list doesn't even include ducks.
In the FAQs, there are questions about both the above, and the answers are both along the lines of "there are so many options availabele, that it would be impossible to include them all"
Quite amazing - I would be embarrassed if I had been tasked with creating the app, and it was now being publicised all over the place. It seems a bit like an app that you might create in a learning environment.
Given the levels of technology, and information available, how hard would it be to include reference to thousands of animals, and how hard to give many more options for the canal description.
Somebody is getting paid to do this???
I suspect the data provided is kept "slim" for a few reasons. The first being they don't want to scare people away by making it look too complicated. Second they may have chosen their species as being indicators of a particular habitat etc. After all seeing a Mallard barely even indicates that there is water present. Another reason could be that they have a particular reason to gather knowledge of a particular problem e.g. if a species is/isn't found in a particular area/habitat.
Without knowing more about what they hope the survey is going to do I would find it difficult to criticise sensibly.
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I almost started a thread to ask this! I am glad to see that I am not the only one who
1. Wondered which was generally accepted
and
2. Says wind (as in clock) because to me it is logical I am turning.
I also sometimes do it on still days so winding (as in blowy stuff) wouldn't apply
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When i work out how to do it I will share the results on here. Already had 63 people do it thanks everyone I really do appreciate you taking the time.
Some of the forums I use have the facility to have a "vote" on questions does anyone know if this software allows such a facility. It might be a useful way of sounding out opinion occasionally.
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Done. Thanks for your efforts on behalf of boaters.
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I think the guidance is really, really clear as it stands. Am I the only one?
No your not I feel it is as well.
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Many of the problems with "new" diseases and pests are due to the "shrinking" world i.e. goods and people being transported all over the world. Varroa in bees illustrates the situation well, the mite evolved with the eastern honey bee Apis cerana and the bees evolved to be able to deal with them. One the mite got to European Honey Bees Apis melifera they had no defences and readily succumb. The same is true of other pests and diseases, when they get into a population which doesn't have natural evolved protection all hell breaks lose.
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I have no problem with CRT taking proper and appropriate action against boats but to abuse their powers to remove it a boat is not one.
Presumably CRT have been able to show a judge enough evidence to convince him! If they can "prove" their case sufficiently well to get the courts to support them can they be abusing their powers?
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So should the limit be raised to 33?
A speed limit indicates the max limit, travelling at the limit increases the risk of exceeding it, you have a choice whether or not to do that. Discretion can be used by any copper but don't rely on it as a defence.
Just a couple of observations. First my speedo was showing 30 so I believed i was within the limit.
Second as I said in a previous post according to the speed awareness course (a course worth taking even if you haven't been speeding by the way) if a camera is taking a picture there is no discretion!
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My understanding is that it applies to cameras too but your guy may very well be correct.
I was once done for 34 by a GATSO in a 30 (ACPO gudlines would have said 35) but it was a long time ago and I'm sure pre- ACPO guidelines so I don't really know for sure if they treat the method of detection differently.
I was done by one of these camera vans for 33 just 100 yards from the end of the limit going uphill. So the 35 certainly doesn't apply in our area. (The speedo was reading 30)
What Do You Do When You See Kids About To Throw Bricks At Your Boat
in General Boating
Posted
The only time I have had a problem with thrown stones was probably the same bridge in March this year. Two teenage girls one small stone and they wandered off when a camera was pointed at them.