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Showing results for tags 'environment agency'.
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Good evening all! First time on the Nene tomorrow starting at Titchmarsh to Grand Union. Not found much guidance online, but a few variations. So looking for clarification. Nene total "V" Gates - Whichever gates are opened upstream or downstream for passage, leave gates left open? Nene "Guillotine" Gates - If going upstream, fill lock slowly, exit the lock, close the gates, and empty the lock and raise guillotine? Any other Nene tips are appreciated! Many thanks!
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Just found out that the reason my boat registration has been delayed by 3 months is because, the link provided on the online forms was incorrect. So if you are trying to email in your boat registration to the Environment Agency, click the website link or type it in by hand. Do not click the link inside their PDF forms. It might be a typo, autocorrect or using a strange font, but it does not go through, and also does not give a failed attempt response either. I could have found out earlier if they had not lied and said "yes we have it here, and will process it" when I first called them. Also if they did not use ambiguous characters or symbols in their email addresses, as who here can tell the difference between these to email addresses? (There is one, and it's super hard to detect it!) A short dash "boatreg@environment‐agency.gov.uk" and a full dash "boatreg@environment-agency.gov.uk". Yep, most email clients, web pages etc all show them as identical. But copy/paste into notepad and they are very different. I have emailed them to ask them to correct it, but no idea if they will.
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Hi All, We (the family), are moving our 60' narrow boat from Cropredy to Newbury soon. Can anyone recommend places to moor along the River Thames and whether it is advantageous to book/who with. We are planning to moor at Abingdon and Pangbourne, but appreciate this may need to change subject to moorings and availability. I note moorings are defined by the Vale of White House District Council in Abingdon. We've been given plenty of advise, e.g. turn upstream to moor, take shears to cut back the overgrown bank at a mooring, all moorings along towpaths are 24 hours unless stated otherwise. However, as we are so used to the ease of mooring on the canals, the River Thames is a bit of an unknown, i.e. ease of mooring, private land, etc. We are ideally looking to moor near pubs and shops for provisions for the evening. The https://www.thamesvisitormoorings.co.uk/ doesn't allow to book moorings at locks. Also, what are people's best guess at how long it will take from King's Lock to Kennet Mouth? I'm estimating two days. Any help, advise and recommendations would be gratefully appreciated.
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MARINA LODGE OWNERS FIGHT UNLAWFUL ENVIRONMENT AGENCY TAX Residents of waterside homes at a Cambridgeshire marina, many of them pensioners, are determined to fight demands that they pay an unlawful £430 annual river tax imposed by the Environment Agency or face heavy fines and a criminal record. The caravan/lodge homes are on permanently fixed floating pontoons and connected to main services. They cannot be fitted with engines and with no means of propulsion are incapable of navigation on the waterways like a boat. By law, a registration fee is due on all vessels using the river to help pay the costs of the locks and weirs essential to navigation and services provided to boaters. The marina home owners use none of these river facilities and pay local Council Tax. In a victory for common-sense, a Crown Court Judge over-ruled local Magistrates and quashed the convictions of two residents. He found that the homes were not vessels and not subject to registration fees, and refused the Environment Agency leave to appeal. Despite the ruling, officials from the Environment Agency, an unelected quango not directly accountable to the public, have now instructed Queen’s Counsel to appeal directly to the Administrative Court. The action comes at enormous cost to the public purse and is a waste of precious navigation funds which should be going only towards maintaining the navigable river. It is clearly an unequal and unfair ‘David v Goliath’ battle, with the home owners who have already dug deep into their pockets to fight the EA, now having to find thousands of pounds in additional legal fees. If they lose, they will have to pay the Environment Agency’s legal costs which could amount to £30,000. The peace of their idyllic riverside retirement has been shattered by fears of criminal prosecution and what can only be seen as theft of their limited retirement funds. But the local marina residents are determined to fight on against the EA’s demands, which amount to a tax without the sanction of Parliament. They are represented by an active Community Association which is now looking to the public for further donations to fight the injustice all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary. They are not alone in fighting the Environment Agency’s arrogance in demanding taxes which have not been approved by Parliament. In a case with many similarities in Oxfordshire, in David Cameron’s own constituency on the River Thames, residents of boats permanently moored in private off-river marinas are being targeted to pay for facilities they never use. The Environment Agency’s six-year battle to re-classify the private adjacent waters as part of the main river was rejected as unlawful by the Secretary of State in 2010. River taxes, or registration fees are only due on boats moored on or navigating the river. Despite the government ruling, last year the Agency arrogantly recommenced threats of prosecution and many berth-holders fearful of the intense bullying just paid up. Twenty-four Thames marina berth-holders who refused to be brow-beaten are now to stand trial at Reading in November for failing to meet the Environment Agency’s unlawful demands. The majority of the berth-holders have worked all their lives, contributing fully to society and are just looking forward to a peaceful retirement by the river. Like the Cambridgeshire residents, they must find money to pay legal fees to defend themselves in court while the EA can just commit unlimited public funds. Without equal professional legal representation there is a real danger that justice will not prevail. If you believe, as we all do, that we cannot allow any unelected quango to make up the law as it goes along and impose taxes without the express sanction of Parliament, then please support us in our fight. In the 1628 Petition of Right , Parliament addressed King Charles I in the following terms “….[Y]our subjects have inherited this freedom, that they should not be compelled to contribute to any tax, tillage, aid, or any other like charge not set by common consent, in Parliament”. Despite this, Charles attempted to levy an obsolete charge, Ship Money, against an Oxfordshire gentleman, John Hampden. In the days before judicial independence from the executive was secured, five out of twelve judges were prepared to say the levy was unlawful. Five years later, his subjects made war against him. Five hundred years later, along came the Environment Agency! Please donate whatever you can and, in the first instance, contact secretary@hartfordmarinaca.org . Thank you for your support in making the Environment Agency cease their unjust and unlawful endeavours.
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