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Canal & River Trust launches first Boater Census


Ray T

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CRT Press Release

 

29th July 2022

 

CANAL & RIVER TRUST LAUNCHES FIRST ‘BOATER CENSUS’

 

The Canal & River Trust is launching the first ever Boater Census and is asking every boat licence holder to take part and help paint a picture of who boats on the charity’s waterways.

 

The Boater Census has been designed with input from boater representatives on the Trust’s Council to help understand the different needs of those who live on or who use their boats for leisure on the 2,000 miles of waterways the charity looks after in England & Wales. The anonymous data will be available to share with other organisations, such as local authorities and health service providers, to help them understand boaters’ needs and ensure they are met.

 

Matthew Symonds, head of customer service at Canal & River Trust, said: “While we know quite a lot about the boats that are on our network, for example the size, type and even their age, we know much less about the people onboard and their circumstances. The Boater Census will give us a comprehensive overview of the people who boat on our waterways, what they are using their boats for, and the challenges that they might face.

 

“From the conversations we have on the towpath, we know that some boaters face specific challenges, for example raising a family on the water, boating with a disability, or difficulty accessing services such as doctors’ surgeries. The information from the Boater Census will prove invaluable in informing our work so we are more able to understand and support the needs of different boaters and, alongside boating groups and other partners, we will use the information to find common themes and identify areas where we can help. It will also add weight to the work we do with other organisations who may not be familiar with the practicalities of life afloat.

 

“The Boater Census is short, easy to complete, and completely anonymous, with no data attached to any boater. We are asking boaters to take part and help us build a picture of life on the waterways in the 21st century, 250 years after they opened to navigation.”

 

Tracey Clarke, co-opted boater representative to represent the views of disabled boaters on the Trust Council, said “For those of us who live on the water, we know that there’s a huge diversity of people in the boating community. However, very little information about them is formally recorded and that makes it much harder provide evidence to those who make decisions about the services that boaters need. I hope boaters will complete the census to help fill this gap in information about who’s on boats on the Trust’s waterways.”

 

Dave Mendes da Costa, also a boater representative on the Trust Council, said “Spending time on the water is a great experience, but life on a boat is not without its challenges. I know how hard it can be to access basic services like a GP and have seen the obstacles which many face when bringing up children aboard or acting as carers. This census provides the first opportunity for boaters to give the Trust a full picture of these challenges, whether that’s finding places to maintain our boats, access to health services or barriers to claiming benefits. The more boaters who complete the census the better the Trust can understand our needs so I'd encourage everyone to take part.”

 

The Trust will be sending a unique e-link to the Boater Census to every boat licence holder who has provided an email or mobile phone number. This will be sent out in phases during August. All answers will be anonymous and cannot be linked to individuals or boats.

 

Boaters are encouraged to complete the census survey by 30 September 2022, and the Trust will send out reminders ahead of that date.

 

-ends-

 

For further media requests please contact:

Fran Read, Canal & River Trust

m 07796 610427 e fran.read@canalrivertrust.org.uk 

 

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The problem in my opinion (Welsh Cruiser note the words) is that if some boaters don't fill it in because of mistrust the result will be at the very least skewed and unreliable.  Do we really want CRT making decision about boaters and boating on unreliable, skewed small samples?

 

That is what they will undoubtedly do whether the results are a large sample or a tiny sample so surely better to ensure as wide a variety of experiences/boating types and views as possible.

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4 minutes ago, Jerra said:

The problem in my opinion (Welsh Cruiser note the words) is that if some boaters don't fill it in because of mistrust the result will be at the very least skewed and unreliable.  Do we really want CRT making decision about boaters and boating on unreliable, skewed small samples?

 

That is what they will undoubtedly do whether the results are a large sample or a tiny sample so surely better to ensure as wide a variety of experiences/boating types and views as possible.

If you have had your say then you can complain, but if you have declined your say then you cannot complain

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4 hours ago, DaveR said:

Mmmm why do I not trust the Trust, this survey nor the results they will draw from it.

 

 

Same here. They have a conclusion I suspect, for which they are seeking supporting 'evidence'.

 

 

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This press release from CRT seems to be almost exclusively concerned with information relevant to liveaboard boaters only.

Whilst these are significant, they are nonetheless a tiny proportion of total boaters.  By far, leisure boaters are the overwhelming majority.

Probably in the region of 90% of boaters are leisure boaters.

Yet none of their "needs" are highlighted, or even recognised, in this press release.

This leads me to suppose that CRT has an agenda for their census, which is not the well being of the great majority, but the management of the few that give them their greatest headaches!

Whilst I am in favour of them seeking accurate information for that purpose, I am wholly against them dressing this up as a census of all boaters.

Especially if CRT mis-use the results as "evidence" of all boaters needs, rather than of a small sub-group of boaters.

I fear this will will only lead to further erosions for everyone's freedoms, as we have increasingly seen over the past few years.

It is the freedom offered by leisure boating that is its greatest attraction.  More interference and restrictions from "authorities" using flawed evidence, is the last thing we need.

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1 hour ago, Rebotco said:

This press release from CRT seems to be almost exclusively concerned with information relevant to liveaboard boaters only.

Whilst these are significant, they are nonetheless a tiny proportion of total boaters.  By far, leisure boaters are the overwhelming majority.

Probably in the region of 90% of boaters are leisure boaters.

Yet none of their "needs" are highlighted, or even recognised, in this press release.

This leads me to suppose that CRT has an agenda for their census, which is not the well being of the great majority, but the management of the few that give them their greatest headaches!

Whilst I am in favour of them seeking accurate information for that purpose, I am wholly against them dressing this up as a census of all boaters.

Especially if CRT mis-use the results as "evidence" of all boaters needs, rather than of a small sub-group of boaters.

I fear this will will only lead to further erosions for everyone's freedoms, as we have increasingly seen over the past few years.

It is the freedom offered by leisure boating that is its greatest attraction.  More interference and restrictions from "authorities" using flawed evidence, is the last thing we need.

 

 

You've expressed far more articulately the concerns I felt when I wrote my sketchy one-line post above yours. Thank you! 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Rebotco said:

Whilst I am in favour of them seeking accurate information for that purpose, I am wholly against them dressing this up as a census of all boaters.

But it literally is a census of all boaters.

 

Of course, if all leisure boaters are so angered by references to liveaboard and disabled boaters' needs in a press release that they refuse to participate, then there will be no evidence of any issues specific to leisure boaters for the CRT to act on (or be blamed for not acting on).

 

Even then I'm not sure how a disproportionate number of people raising an issue like getting access to a GP whilst continuous cruising being useful would have anything to do with the erosion of your freedoms. The CRT might have many silly ideas, but I don't think they're going to force everyone to live on their boat and register their GP through them.

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It's not easy for a land-lubber to get to see a GP either!

I see plenty of grumbles about the state of the canal system, the ones relating to the Rochdale catch my eye because I live by it.

It's obviously difficult to compare directly but those of us living in houses are paying increasing taxes for diminishing services too.

 

I'm pretty sure there have been more boats up The Rochdale than in previous years. According to the United Utilities guy I spoke to (40 years service) he said that recently 5.5 million litres per day were being fed into the canal from Chelburn Reservoir, itself being topped up by Warland (I think). C&RT had requested 7 million litres apparently, but people locally need to shower and wash. Anyhow, with boat numbers and water in mind, I sent an inquiry to C&RT.

They don't have that specific information and treated my email as a 'Freedom of Information' request, which I suppose it was. I certainly wasn't requesting anything official with a grumbly agenda attached. A simple 'dunno mate' from Arthur, Lengthsman, Rochdale, would have done. Anyhow the attached reply came about overall boat numbers and license compliance.

 

46302-national-boat-count-2022.pdf

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7 hours ago, enigmatic said:

But it literally is a census of all boaters.

 

Of course, if all leisure boaters are so angered by references to liveaboard and disabled boaters' needs in a press release that they refuse to participate, then there will be no evidence of any issues specific to leisure boaters for the CRT to act on (or be blamed for not acting on).

 

Even then I'm not sure how a disproportionate number of people raising an issue like getting access to a GP whilst continuous cruising being useful would have anything to do with the erosion of your freedoms. The CRT might have many silly ideas, but I don't think they're going to force everyone to live on their boat and register their GP through them.

My worry is just as after the recent referendum we were told "those who don't vote don't count" in this case those who don't respond to the survey don't count.

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4 hours ago, Jerra said:

They don't have mine and I found my way to the survey.

If you don't use the personalised link CRT send you, CRT will have no way of knowing whether you have completed the survey more than once. Unattributable responses could be a means for a particular interest group to skew the survey responses, so they will be given less weight in assessing the survey conclusions.

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Anyone seen this census yet? Just had an email from CaRT saying that they'll send me a unique link next week. I asssume going out in batches avoids twenty thousand boaters all connecting to it at the same time. The email does say that 

'the census survey questions will direct people to different follow-on questions depending on the answers you select. It’s too complicated to replicate this is a paper survey, but if anyone doesn’t have access to complete the census online, please get in touch and we will try to arrange to complete the census survey with them over the phone.' 

but just how you would get a unique code without them having your phone number or email in the first place, I don't know.

 

Edited by BilgePump
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Is there anybody on here who hasn't given CRT their email address at some time or another? Are there really many who don't licence online?

I don't think that's an issue. Nor, though, do I think this is any more than a box-ticking exercise, like those employee satisfaction surveys your boss sends round every now and then.

If it isn't, then it's probably to check on the ratios of live-aboard continuous cruisers to the ones who hiccup along occasionally avoiding mooring fees, and then to those with moorings. The result will be a punitive differential rate between the first two categories.

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5 hours ago, Arthur Marshall said:

Is there anybody on here who hasn't given CRT their email address at some time or another? Are there really many who don't licence online?

I don't think that's an issue. Nor, though, do I think this is any more than a box-ticking exercise, like those employee satisfaction surveys your boss sends round every now and then.

If it isn't, then it's probably to check on the ratios of live-aboard continuous cruisers to the ones who hiccup along occasionally avoiding mooring fees, and then to those with moorings. The result will be a punitive differential rate between the first two categories.

How does that work?

I don't see they can charge extra for living on board, marinas can but that's a different ballgame

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5 minutes ago, LadyG said:

How does that work?

I don't see they can charge extra for living on board, marinas can but that's a different ballgame

 

It's in the bylaws they don't use.

30. No vessel on any canal shall without the permission of the Board

be used as a club, shop, store, workshop, dwelling or houseboat.

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6 hours ago, Arthur Marshall said:

Nor, though, do I think this is any more than a box-ticking exercise, like those employee satisfaction surveys your boss sends round every now and then.

 

A year or so before Marconi started going down the pan under the stewardship of the directors who were evidently bewitched by the sophistry of management consultants and blind belief in the dot.com revolution, our department  was going to be reorganised. I was sufficienly hacked-off that I did write down in my survey exactly  what I thought. I don't recall exactly what I said, apart from my last sentence:

 

"The lunatics really have taken over the asylum." 

 

 It didn't make any difference! 

 

The problem wasn't my local management, which was first class.  The department head strongly opposed the reorganisation and took early retirement, and the subsequent catastrophic plunge in the company's fortunes meant the reorganisation never happened.

 

 

Edited by Ronaldo47
typos
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1 hour ago, LadyG said:

How does that work?

I don't see they can charge extra for living on board, marinas can but that's a different ballgame

 

They can charge anything they like, for whatever they like, but it would need to be enforced and if unreasonable, it could be challenged by judicial review.

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When I worked for a milk marketing board,  no prizes for guessing which one, the Director who had built up a small offshoot in to a very profitable business resigned when he was told it would be sold off. He went to his desk and removed his briefcase. By the time he left the building, every employee watched from their windows as he got in to his car. It took about five minutes for the news to get around.

I think he got a job with their competitors very soon after, they didn't need to buy the company, they just killed it off!

Edited by LadyG
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14 hours ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

It's in the bylaws they don't use.

30. No vessel on any canal shall without the permission of the Board

be used as a club, shop, store, workshop, dwelling or houseboat.

If they applied this, every ccer would have to go home for the night? Permission must therefore be implicit in every licence to boaters without a home mooring.

Edited by wandering snail
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12 minutes ago, wandering snail said:

If they applied this, every ccer would have to go home for the night? Permission must therefore be complicit in every licence to boaters without a home mooring.

 

 

Not all CCers are liveaboards - some / many are just those who like to travel, don't want to pay for a mooring and cruise for a few days, moor up ('dump' the boat), go back home' for a few days, back to the boat and cruise for a few days ........... repeat, repeat.

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