mayalld

There is an argument that the very last people one should have as moderators are those who would apply. If you want the power, you shouldn't have it! Like MTB, I believe that my earlier expression of interest is somewhere in Dan's in-tray and will receive a response one day.

There is a conflation of "Choose" and "Need" I choose to generate electricity and heat water using my engine. That comes with certain limitations that I must accept, namely that I can't do so between 8pm and 8am. If my needs for generating power and heating water cannot be accommodated within that envelope, I will need to make different choices for my power and hot water. I cannot simply choose to exempt myself from the rules, any more than I can choose to drive at 100mph because I need to get to work in a shorter time than driving at the speed limit will accommodate. Where an EXCEPTIONAL need has arisen (by which I mean an entirely unforeseen one-off need for engine running and the effects of not running the engine would have a serious detrimental effect) then I think we can all be sympathetic, but if the late running is "I work shifts, and don't get to the boat until 9pm" the boater has then made a choice that isn't actually available to him.

So, your intention was that rather than CCing, your boat would move in a limited area, although you have no concession enabling this? Whilst I have a little sympathy, because you haven't just taken the attitude of "they will have to lump it", the arrangements that you made were did depend on everything coming together, and weren't robust. The whole essence of licencing as a CCer is that you don't take a mooring because you don't need one. For a 5 week period that isn't true, and you actually do need a mooring.

I am in two minds. Yes you made provision to keep moving "enough" to keep under the radar. However that provision was actually based upon a need to be in a specific area for a period of time, so it was about keeping under the radar rather than fully complying. Is there some reason that the arrangements you made on the upper pound won't work on the lower? If you are away for 5 weeks, he would need to make 2 moves.

That is, of course, Bovine Excrement. I've been up to Sutton Reservoir, and levels have recovered enough to operate the locks. However, I don't believe that they have completed the gate replacement works that were brought forward. More to the point, it appears that despite the low levels, Coombs Sailing Club continues to have a full programme of events on Coombs Reservoir. Let's get down to brass tacks here. They have our money, and the have Terms and Conditions that say we can't have it back if they close the canal. They also rent use of the reservoirs out to other people. Sailing Clubs don't have licences, they pay rent. It's contractual rather than statutory, and CRT know that if the run the water out of Coombs so the sailing club can't sail, no court in the land would enforce the Sailing Club paying its rent. They have sold the water twice over (remember how people kicked the airlines for this kind of stuff). Once to people who can't get a refund, and once to people who can. Who do you think they supply a service to?

Yes, useful advice: Feel free to be a risk taker as much as you want, just so long as you take risks with your own life, not with the lives of others

Casper Blackburn didn't die because of a lack of CCTV and railings. He died because he failed to take responsibility for his own safety. We can't keep on making the world ever safer just so that people can abdicate personal responsibility.

OK, after a series of e-mails to CRT that got different replies each time about how this will work (some saying it will be open, some that it will be closed), and Andy Bailey at the trading post having had a message on twitter from CRT that it will stay open, I lost patience and said that I didn't want to speak to the office staff guessing what the stoppage notice means. I asked to speak to the engineer for a definitive answer. Well, I've just had the Project Manager for this piece of work on the phone. Nice chap, who apologised for the lack of clarity in the stoppage notice. He has confirmed that the plan is to put stop planks in at 15, and a temporary dam just upstream of 14A. So, that's the 20 mile pound cut in half.

You can get in there at the moment. The isolation has resulted in less boats (most leisure boaters aren't bothering), and we managed to moor there twice in the past fortnight.

As I have a 58' boat and seldom go onto broad waterways, the issue of sharing locks seldom arises. Other boaters seeking to help are welcome to do so if they want to set the lock or close up. Those seeking to interfere whilst the boat is in the lock are asked not to. If that fails, they are told not to.

THIS^^^^ Failing to display a licence, or even failing to have a licence are relatively minor matters. Displaying a fake licence is a much more serious matter. So, continuing to require the display of a licence does have some utility in driving down evasion, because only a complete idiot would display a fake licence to enable evasion.

I assume that you mean the wide bit just before Higher Poynton? That isn't private, but there is seldom a gap, as it is a favourite spot for the Continuously Cruising not-very-far contingent. The other side of the bridge (15-14) is CRT Long Term moorings.

NO!!! If you have a Referendum, then you have another Referendum, you have had two referendums. Faux Latin plurals are a really naff thing.

Perhaps what you encounter is that typical Britishness, which dictates that; We apologise when somebody barges into us. We mustn't tell anybody that we are good at what we do. If somebody holds a door open for us, we must go through it and thank them even if we weren't actually going that way. I want to work my own locks, and surely the volunteers understand that, because they want to work locks. I do not want to have to go out of my way to arrange for this to happen. I want those who would take over to ask, rather than me have to go to the trouble of attracting their attention and stopping them. I want them to accept with good grace that it's my choice if I accept help or not.

Eeeh, it fair does me heart good! After all those tiresome digs about people being in charge and it being unnecessary, you have finally seen the light. There you were, asserting your authority as the person in charge. Well done!