C&RT License Survey

[john6767]

Mine also arrived this morning, so it looks like they have only just got to Sebring the baulk of them out. Not looked at it yet though.

[Arthur Marshall]

19 minutes ago, Goliath said:

That’d be a good idea, I somehow missed the video and couldn’t return to it.

I assumed the written blurb which follows the video amounts to the same?

 

 

 

 

I stuck it on YouTube as a private video, so it's not generally available or lost among my music stuff. It's here. Forum seems to have embedded it, whatever that means. If that's a problem I'll just put the link.

 

Edited February 22, 2023 by Arthur Marshall

[Arthur Marshall]

7 minutes ago, SLC said:

Question about the licence fee. We initially paid by debit card and have 1 month before our first renewal I received an email stating that we are entitled to a 5% discount for prompt payment or paying online. However, it appears that they will automatically renew using the card details previously used. Do we still get the 5% discount?

I think so. As long as the card is set to automatically renew you get all the discount.

[LadyG]

10 minutes ago, SLC said:

Question about the licence fee. We initially paid by debit card and have 1 month before our first renewal I received an email stating that we are entitled to a 5% discount for prompt payment or paying online. However, it appears that they will automatically renew using the card details previously used. Do we still get the 5% discount?

and as long as it is still valid of course.

I think it is prompt payment AND paying online, which is in effect what you are doing.

Edited February 22, 2023 by LadyG

[SLC]

Thanks LadyG. I would hope so. Of course, the card details may have changed and that is a something I am checking with my wife. Just in case.

[Nightwatch]

If they license by area then I will dip in. Nightwatch beam is 6’8”.

[haggis]

20 minutes ago, SLC said:

Question about the licence fee. We initially paid by debit card and have 1 month before our first renewal I received an email stating that we are entitled to a 5% discount for prompt payment or paying online. However, it appears that they will automatically renew using the card details previously used. Do we still get the 5% discount?

I am not sure you will get the discount and i think you should contact C&RT to find out. We got our renewal notice this morning and the discounts talk about paying by card or direct debit IN FULL before the renewal date and there is a slightly bigger discount for renewing on line.  I think it depends whether you pay in full in advance or in instalments. 

[dmr]

1 minute ago, Nightwatch said:

If they license by area then I will dip in. Nightwatch beam is 6’8”.

 

and  there will be a lot of old working boats tightening up those chains.

.....and an angle grinder to the guard irons????

[Cheshire cat]

I doubt it will be policed so carefully

[Hudds Lad]

20 minutes ago, SLC said:

Question about the licence fee. We initially paid by debit card and have 1 month before our first renewal I received an email stating that we are entitled to a 5% discount for prompt payment or paying online. However, it appears that they will automatically renew using the card details previously used. Do we still get the 5% discount?

Yes. If they have your details/card stored they will take the funds a couple of weeks before your actual renewal date so make sure there's enough in the account to cover it now and not just on the due day. Gave me quite the panic when the money went when i was not expecting it to. You may also want to make sure auto-renew is selected in your CRT account settings online, mine wasn't initially, think it then does a small transaction to ensure card details are working.

[Midnight]

I received the invitation this morning so have completed the survey. There's a lot of reading to do and it's easy to see which direction this is going. Pain ahead for all but especially for wide-beam and CC license holders. 

[IanD]

Just now, Midnight said:

I received the invitation this morning so have completed the survey. There's a lot of reading to do and it's easy to see which direction this is going. Pain ahead for all but especially for wide-beam and CC license holders. 

I suspect you're right given that they're both a minority of boaters, but let's see what the results say before jumping to conclusions...

 

I don't think CART care which way the results go, they'll just share out the above-inflation license fee increase whichever way gets voted for, it makes no difference to them. When there are protests from widebeam owners and CCers -- assuming these do get hit with the biggest increase -- they can justifiably say "We asked boaters what they wanted us to do, and this is what you said".

 

Democracy's a real b*gger sometimes... 😉

[Alan de Enfield]

We now have 3 threads running on the same subject (one already running to 6 pages) - maybe its time for them to be merged ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Midnight]

9 minutes ago, IanD said:

I suspect you're right given that they're both a minority of boaters, but let's see what the results say before jumping to conclusions...

 

I don't think CART care which way the results go, they'll just share out the above-inflation license fee increase whichever way gets voted for, it makes no difference to them. When there are protests from widebeam owners and CCers -- assuming these do get hit with the biggest increase -- they can justifiably say "We asked boaters what they wanted us to do, and this is what you said".

 

Democracy's a real b*gger sometimes... 😉

 
It's genuine Continuous Cruisers who will suffer. There is no distinction between the p*ss takers and the genuine CCers. I suspect most of us (even us less well-offs) will have to bite the bullet and accept the increases but will expect to see an improvement in maintenance - fat chance!

[enigmatic]

2 hours ago, Bristolfashion said:

You might want to review your internet provider / deal. We were offered 100 GB / month for £20/month (24 month plan) recently. And that was certainly not with the cheapest provider. We went with £25 month unlimited.

Agreed. I'm on £11.95/month for 100gb (rolling contract at the moment) with Talkmobile 

 

200mb video is still a lot for people that don't use the Internet regularly though

[Arthur Marshall]

7 minutes ago, Midnight said:

 
It's genuine Continuous Cruisers who will suffer. There is no distinction between the p*ss takers and the genuine CCers. I suspect most of us (even us less well-offs) will have to bite the bullet and accept the increases but will expect to see an improvement in maintenance - fat chance!

It's the unfortunate consequence of the principle behind the rules relating to boating without a home mooring being hugely flouted. A result, as usual, of badly phrased laws being interpreted by judges who have no connection to real life, and grabbed with both hands by those who want to save themselves a few quid. All terribly legal, of course.

If some judge with a working brain had defined a continuous cruise as someone continually cruising things might have worked out differently, and if either BW or CRT had had the gumption to grasp the nettle years ago we wouldn't be where we are now. But rebranding everything was so much more important...

As you say, it's the genuine cruisers who will suffer. The total p*sstakers will just paint the number and name out and go anonymous. The once-every-three-weeks boat movers will easily pay up, seeing as how they can comfortably afford both house and boat. Those who like living on their boats and moving about pay for the sins of others.

[Jon57]

1 hour ago, Midnight said:

 
It's genuine Continuous Cruisers who will suffer. There is no distinction between the p*ss takers and the genuine CCers. I suspect most of us (even us less well-offs) will have to bite the bullet and accept the increases but will expect to see an improvement in maintenance - fat chance!

Reading between the lines in the opening video it mentions increasing the license over the next 10 yrs. Question is will CRT still be in charge in 10yrs time. Who Knows.

[cuthound]

Well my consultation has finally arrived.

 

I'll look at it later. I do hope it is worth the wait...

[Jon57]

3 hours ago, IanD said:

 

Yes. I don't know if they'll send them to anyone (named Tom, Dick, Harry or anything else) who just fancies taking part, but they're sending one to me... 😉

 

(I told them I'm expecting to become a narrowboat owner in the near future -- of course I could have been telling porkies...)

If that’s true it makes the consultation worthless.😡

[wandering snail]

3 hours ago, john6767 said:

Mine also arrived this morning, so it looks like they have only just got to Sebring the baulk of them out. Not looked at it yet though.

They might be behind with sending them as NABO got them to change the wording, removing the references to the non-existent 'continuous cruising licence'.

[IanD]

1 hour ago, Jon57 said:

If that’s true it makes the consultation worthless.😡

Why -- do you really think tens of thousands of non-license-holders are going to bother to ask CART if they can take part just to stir up trouble for boaters?

 

The only ones who will bother are likely to be those genuinely interested in the future of the canals -- more so than some license-holders, going by frequent posts on here... 😉

Edited February 22, 2023 by IanD

[Jon57]

11 minutes ago, IanD said:

Why -- do you really think tens of thousands of non-license-holders are going to bother to ask CART if they can take part just to stir up trouble for boaters?

 

The only ones who will bother are likely to be those genuinely interested in the future of the canals -- more so than some license-holders, going by frequent posts on here... 😉

Might be loads or cc with lots of friends without boats who might be getting one in the near future? who knows 

[Arthur Marshall]

1 hour ago, Jon57 said:

If that’s true it makes the consultation worthless.😡

I suspect it's worthless anyway. A self-selected number of people will reply, a lot won't bother any more than they ever take their boats out and play with them, and if you expect CRT to take any notice of what boaters say, you haven't been paying attention for the last ten years!

Edited February 22, 2023 by Arthur Marshall

[IanD]

2 hours ago, Midnight said:

 
It's genuine Continuous Cruisers who will suffer. There is no distinction between the p*ss takers and the genuine CCers. I suspect most of us (even us less well-offs) will have to bite the bullet and accept the increases but will expect to see an improvement in maintenance - fat chance!

I agree, and it's really not fair that "real CCers" should suffer because of the behaviour of "CMers". But as Arthur said, it's a consequence of the widespread rule-bending/breaking encouraged by the likes of the NBTA, which has been allowed to get out of control instead of CART biting the bullet and actually enforcing their own rules.

 

It ought to be possible to find a way to control/penalise the CMers while not hitting "real CCers" -- for example, charging the "CC supplement" to everybody without a home mooring but then waiving it for boaters who could prove they'd exceeded a travelling threshold *much* higher than the current one, so CMers would have no chance of spuriously claiming the waiver.

 

Whether CART have the nous and the will to do this remains to be seen... 😞

[Jon57]

1 minute ago, Arthur Marshall said:

I suspect it's worthless anyway. A self-selected number of people will reply, a lot won't bother any more than they ever take their boats out and play with them.

It’s a forgone conclusion that’s for sure. I will take my medicine now.