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Why people Buy Boats To Live On in London Despite the Problems


Tim Lewis

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22 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

Indeed they are, but a lot of boaters feel the way you expressed it and one, once in a while, decides their boat is their castle and CRT can spin on it.

 

I once saw a pub owner's boat being craned out by CRT, after he decided he didn't need a licence, could moor on his pub water frontage and there was damn all CRT could do about it other than keep writing the threatening letters, which all went in the bin with a smile. 

 

And there have been cases where the police has assisted with eviction, pre-craning. Once the police get involved, I don't think one stands a prayer of winning. 

I have video footage of a boat being craned out by CRT at Greenham Lock Marina. It was placed on the back of a huge extending flatbed lorry & driven away. The whole operation took less than thirty minutes.

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24 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

 

If you go onto the 'what do you know' wesite you will see C&RTs published list of all the boats they have siezed.

 

One example (not so long ago) of a C&RT Eviction :

Yep, thats definitely in the minority though. There’s a bunch of boats in Kensal that haven’t moved for years too, the CRT only seem to care in a small number of cases, or if the boat is abandoned. Sunk ones last years too. 

Edited by cheesegas
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10 hours ago, PD1964 said:

 I take it you weren’t born in the 80’s or still in nappies if you think this photo reflects the 80’s? Punk slightly earlier, maybe this photo 81/2 ish but post real Punk, try New-Romantic more early 80’s, then Bros/Wham. Best music era 1977-83 🎶

Not only was I born, but I was living in London.  Young people dressed like this were a common sight right through the 80s.  Obviously, other young people dressed differently.

 

I was responding to the tired old rose-tinted stereotype that young people were all neatly turned out and impeccably behaved in the past, which has never been true.  In fact the prevelance, of slouchy unkempt youth was much greater in the 80s and 90s when fashion led them that way - I should know, I was one of them.

Edited by doratheexplorer
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8 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

 

If you go onto the 'what do you know' wesite you will see C&RTs published list of all the boats they have siezed.

 

One example (not so long ago) of a C&RT Eviction :

 

 

On 14th September 2016 Canal & River Trust (CRT), together with police, bailiffs and a CRT enforcement officer, seized a boat without a home mooring that was a vulnerable woman’s home while she was asleep inside it. The woman, who suffers from epilepsy, was later rushed to hospital in an ambulance as the stress of the eviction had caused her condition to become critical.

Boat dweller Peter John Wells, who was an eyewitness, filmed the eviction. It is on YouTube here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQGSVSGWOsE and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TYzW97R5XY

Mr Wells said: “On the morning of September 14th Corrine Rotherham, CRT Enforcement Officer, and a team of seven private contractors set off in a vessel from Bradford on Avon on the Kennet and Avon Canal. They were on a mission to evict a lone woman living on a boat in Bath due to a licence dispute. They arrived as she was still asleep in bed, boarded the boat and proceeded to attach their boat to hers and tow it away. A number of nearby boaters were alerted to the situation and a blockade was formed preventing the removal. The boaters offered to pay any outstanding money due on the spot. This was not accepted”.

“Ms Rotherham decided her plan had gone seriously wrong and called for back-up, in this case four police officers and a police van with an unknown number of officers inside. By this time the woman, who suffers from epilepsy, was so distraught that she was reduced to tears. At one point she was surrounded by CRT, bailiffs and police officers against the railway wall. Despite support from the other boaters she felt she had to escape the situation and she agreed to leave her boat. Her boat was taken to Bradford on Avon, lifted on a lorry and driven away. Two days later she was admitted to hospital as the stress o the eviction had caused her epilepsy to become critical”.

Before being taken to hospital the woman wandered around Bath in a confused and distressed state. According to staff at a drop-in centre for homeless people, she was so ill that she was incoherent and could not explain what had happened. The following day she was found by police and an ambulance was called.

You don't need  'what do you know' as CaRT publish a list here https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/the-publication-scheme/governance/legal-documents/court-action-to-remove-boats-from-our-waterways

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10 minutes ago, Mike Todd said:

 

So, on that list 50%, of the boats siezed were in 'Central London'

No doubt as a result of employing those extra London based Enforcement officers a few years ago (due to the increasing overstaying probems).

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3 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

So, on that list 50%, of the boats siezed were in 'Central London'

No doubt as a result of employing those extra London based Enforcement officers a few years ago (due to the increasing overstaying probems).

They're certainly not doing much about it now, going by the boats that haven't moved for many months on the GU Paddington Arm...

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15 hours ago, IanD said:

They're certainly not doing much about it now, going by the boats that haven't moved for many months on the GU Paddington Arm...

I suspect that enforcement has been constrained by a probable legal opinion that the courts would likely be very lenient during the pandemic and that this would establish an adverse track record that CaRT would not want. In general, it does look as if they follow the DPP principles of only going for cases that they are at least 50% likely to win.

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On 11/02/2022 at 09:52, MtB said:

 

 

Can't help but disagree with you there. Yes there are many areas in London just as you describe but equally there are lots of little 'village'-like bits tucked away out of view which you'd never realise existed looking at a map. You'd need to get out of your car and walk. Each with just as close a 'community spirit' as the canals. And the 'village' might be only a couple of hundred yards in size, turn a corner and you're back in the big anonymous thoroughfare.

Yup the original post was the reflected sound of someone of no experience. Sent into a spin by what dross they are suckered into reading. And then being naive enough to believe it.

Edited by mark99
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