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Middle Level Licencing arrangements


Scholar Gypsy

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Middle Level Navigation. If anyone is wondering about the new licencing arrangements for the ML, this letter (sent to boaters who are based there) sets out the arrangements for this year.

If you have an EA or Gold licence, and are not based on the ML, then you don't need to do anything (top of second page). 2021 is a different year. 

I am encouraging MLC to add this info to their website.
 

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Edited by Scholar Gypsy
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13 hours ago, Traveller said:

Simon, I am on the ML. Am transient, aiming for the canals. Have been there all winter and I have received no such letter. How do they know I am even there?

No idea! I imagine they have been surveying all boats on the ML, particularly those moored up at the bottom of a garden, and/or sending letters via marina owners. I suspect (not least given the virus stuff) that the transition will be pretty gentle, for example they won't try and stop anyone leaving at Stanground if they have not been properly licenced. But that is just speculation on my part. 

 

13 hours ago, Mike Hurley said:

What a fantastic photo, love it.

Thank you. The flag is of Vanuatu in the South Pacific, where son #2 is working.

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If you do any cruising outside the Middle Levels it looks like the CRT Gold Licence is the way to go. However on reading it again I see that if you are based on the Middle Levels then you are required to buy an extra licence to cover those waters and the Gold Licence only covers boats based outside of the ML 

Edited by mikedel
Edited to clarify licence requirements
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7 minutes ago, mikedel said:

If you do any cruising outside the Middle Levels it looks like the CRT Gold Licence is the way to go.

I am intending to cruise outside the ML permanently. I am on the Levels in transit to Crick from the Great Ouse, but got stuck as the Nene has been closed since last Sept. However there are those who will just cruise the ML and surrounding EA waters (Gt Ouse and the Nene); they would not need a Gold License would they?

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I foresee a number oif creaky-looking narrowboats and cruisers disappearing from our local waters afore long. some of them are long-term immobile, such as one I photographed for a magazine article about seven years ago and which has not moved since, except when the MLC were dredging that stretch. I assume they pulled it out of the way,, dredged where it had been, and put it back. It's not looking well.

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2 minutes ago, Traveller said:

I am intending to cruise outside the ML permanently. I am on the Levels in transit to Crick from the Great Ouse, but got stuck as the Nene has been closed since last Sept. However there are those who will just cruise the ML and surrounding EA waters (Gt Ouse and the Nene); they would not need a Gold License would they?

I edited my post as I realised I had not quite understood it correctly. You are right - the Gold Licence is not needed on ML and EA waters if that is all you are cruising on.

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2 minutes ago, Athy said:

I foresee a number oif creaky-looking narrowboats and cruisers disappearing from our local waters afore long. some of them are long-term immobile, such as one I photographed for a magazine article about seven years ago and which has not moved since, except when the MLC were dredging that stretch. I assume they pulled it out of the way,, dredged where it had been, and put it back. It's not looking well.

Yes - it was a last refuge for the rare and endangered 'freedom' boater.

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1 minute ago, mikedel said:

Yes - it was a last refuge for the rare and endangered 'freedom' boater.

I was thinking more of freedom non-boaters. No one lives on this one, nor on a couple more in our village, nor on a once handsome n/b which has spent years gradually becoming rusty and mossy down the cut in Nordelph. I'm sure there are many more such examples. They have been quite legally moored because they have not needed a licence or insurence, so, as you say, it is free to keep them on ML waters. Not for much longer though....MLC have a small fleet of very smart orange work boats which look like wheelless diesel shunters; I wonder if we'll see them towing such moored craft to some disposal point.

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3 minutes ago, Athy said:

I was thinking more of freedom non-boaters. No one lives on this one, nor on a couple more in our village, nor on a once handsome n/b which has spent years gradually becoming rusty and mossy down the cut in Nordelph. I'm sure there are many more such examples. They have been quite legally moored because they have not needed a licence or insurence, so, as you say, it is free to keep them on ML waters. Not for much longer though....MLC have a small fleet of very smart orange work boats which look like wheelless diesel shunters; I wonder if we'll see them towing such moored craft to some disposal point.

I noticed those little orange pushers last time I went past the MLC base - very smart indeed. Will this licence apply to vessels in marinas or just on the cut?

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11 minutes ago, mikedel said:

I noticed those little orange pushers last time I went past the MLC base - very smart indeed. Will this licence apply to vessels in marinas or just on the cut?

I don't know. Member NB Firesprite, who moors in one such marina, will know more.

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2 hours ago, mikedel said:

I noticed those little orange pushers last time I went past the MLC base - very smart indeed. Will this licence apply to vessels in marinas or just on the cut?

It makes specific provision for boats that stay permanently in a marina, as I read it.

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The formal undertaking given by the MLC to the House of Lords committee (following Nigel Moore's representation) was that registration charges for residential boats moored permanently in marinas that do not leave those marinas would be restricted to no more than the administrative cost of the registration process.  It should be a fixed and transparently accountable sum. The reference to "a further discount" is odd.516892441_ml2020.JPG.f2662a8dd73c9cd003517e8b5116b689.JPG

Edited by erivers
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I have looked at the letter and the only item on the MLC website and am very confused. This is due to begin in 2 weeks time, not much time for anyone to comply. 

I normally get a week visitor licence on the Nene and 6 month CRT licence before returning to make use of the excellent Bill Fen.

If I venture out at the end of May I will  need a years licence on the MLC at 75% of the £1091, an EA visitor then my CRT, seems like the end of boats using  Bill Fen and Foxes.

With the levels the Nene has been running at this winter early escape is unlikely to be an option. 

Anyone of you middle level experts have any better idea?

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We are in exactly the same situation - spending six months over the summer out of the Middle Levels. It is starting to look like a bit of an expensive exercise - even with the discounts offered for this year. 

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Am in the same situation - currently holed up in Fox's, which I find a great place. I have a feeling the Levels will eventually lose a lot of boats. But, have any of you received official notification? I would have known nothing about this but for stuff posted here and on FB.

The problem is made worse by the coronavirus - will we/won't we get a system shut down or some sort of zoning? There is nothing from the ML Commissioners on this as far as I know. Not a great start and the sooner I can escape the better.

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Perhaps boaters should let the MLC have their email addresses, and ask for messages like this to be sent to them direct?

 

I do think - and have said so to them - that they need to do more to communicate all this stuff. For example I can't work out if the new byelaws are actually now signed off and in force, or are still wending their way through the rather complex approval process.

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1 minute ago, Scholar Gypsy said:

Perhaps boaters should let the MLC have their email addresses, and ask for messages like this to be sent to them direct?

 

I do think - and have said so to them - that they need to do more to communicate all this stuff. For example I can't work out if the new byelaws are actually now signed off and in force, or are still wending their way through the rather complex approval process.

All a bit chicken and egg really, but I would have expected the MLC to start this off. They could instruct marina owners to advise all their moorers and in addition have notices placed outside the marina office. That would be a start. For boats moored on the bank the MLC should perhaps deliver "flyers" to those boats. And some high level publicity in the boating press would not go amiss either. I bet they have not even considered the potential Coronavirus impact or the fact that the Nene has been closed for ages and boats cannot get out - at best it will not be fully open until April (9th I believe) when winter works are completed.

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I have to thank Scholar Gypsy for bringing this to our attention but surely this is the MLC responsibility. I was aware it was coming but they have not communicated in any way. The information is so scant on their website as to be impossible for my simple brain to understand. I realise they never wanted to be a navigation authority but for an equivalent rate as the EA they provide 3 x manned locks and 2 x unmanned. Not a single mooring place or water tap. I had assumed they would not be able to charge for boats remaining within the marinas which are privately owned. 

As traveler says, we would appear to have no option to escape before 1 April, just remembered its all fools day!

Are we going to be able to escape via Stanground without paying fees?

 

A gold licence could be the best option, using the summer to tour the Thames and to Bath but with kung flu would I be able or wish to cruise a heavily populated area. London appearing to be the hotspot in the country at the moment

Edited by WhiteSuit
to add gold
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Have just returned from my home in Dorset, I popped round to the Middle Level Office next door just now.

 

The  Application form is now on the site for download 

 

There is no option to pay monthy, payment in full is required up front either by cheque, Visa or Mastercard. This may be a problem for boaters without either. It's been over ten years since I last wrote a cheque.

 

As for registration charges for residential boats moored permanently in marinas that do not leave those marina, They will phone me in the morning after I pointed out their undertaking to HoL committee on the subject after I was told that it would be the same as the EA houseboat charge.

 

The letter from the Middle Level has been displayed on the Marina Office door in Foxes since the start of the month. Also had a letter arrive last week at my home in Dorset

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1 hour ago, WhiteSuit said:

I have to thank Scholar Gypsy for bringing this to our attention but surely this is the MLC responsibility. I was aware it was coming but they have not communicated in any way. The information is so scant on their website as to be impossible for my simple brain to understand. I realise they never wanted to be a navigation authority but for an equivalent rate as the EA they provide 3 x manned locks and 2 x unmanned. Not a single mooring place or water tap. I had assumed they would not be able to charge for boats remaining within the marinas which are privately owned. 

As traveler says, we would appear to have no option to escape before 1 April, just remembered its all fools day!

Are we going to be able to escape via Stanground without paying fees?

 

A gold licence could be the best option, using the summer to tour the Thames and to Bath but with kung flu would I be able or wish to cruise a heavily populated area. London appearing to be the hotspot in the country at the moment

That is about the size of it, WhiteSuit. I am inclined to take the view that as the MLC have not informed me otherwise there is no license to apply for. The downside is that they are only giving the 25% discount up until the end of May, following which the EA rate will be applied. That is my understanding anyway. The alternative is to email the MLC and ask then to get their act together and present a proper plan that accommodates boats that are in transit but stuck due to the Nene closure or other reasonable circumstances, including the current Coranavirus scare. Maybe thosr boats that are not going to be there after this year (and are already on the system) should be given a much bigger discount, perhaps geared to whether they are in a marina or not.

 

 

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