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The National Bargee Travellers Association has slammed plans to raise licence fees on canals like the Kennet and Avon


Alan de Enfield

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Earlier this year, the Canal and River Trust announced the hike and said it was needed to cover a funding shortfall. The decision follows a real-term decline in government support since 2021.

However, the NBTA said raising fees would push the boating community further toward the breadline and pit bargees against each other. They condemned the CRT's plan to charge continuous cruisers more for their licences than those on a mooring.

READ NEXT: Bath boaters 'left out in the cold' as fuel prices soar this spring

A spokesman said: "Differentiating between those with and without home moorings ignores the fact that a boat licence allows all boaters to enjoy the same access to the network, its navigation structures and facilities.

"Whether you navigate continuously, frequently or just occasionally, all boaters rely on the functioning of our canal system - a system designed to be used, rather than just preserved. Many boaters will go between having a home mooring and navigating continuously over their time on the water. We are all part of one community drawn to the water."

 

They added: "Boaters - whether liveaboard or leisure, itinerant or with a home mooring - are the lifeblood of the canal system. We are not just users of the waterways, but custodians of them.

"We are a fundamental part of what makes the canals safe, beautiful and vibrant, giving them new life since the end of their industrial story. We cannot allow the CRT to divide our community and begin a process of pricing us off the water.

 

"Boaters of all stripes need to stand together and make sure that our way of life, in all its wonderful diversity, is preserved and respected as a benefit to the waterways, rather than a strain on it. We are stakeholders, and any rise to licence fees ought to be conditional on results for all of us, as a community."

The NBTA's comments follow longwinded negotiations with the government to try to get boaters the same help with their energy bills as settled folk. Currently, there is no way for continuous cruisers to receive the £400 discount most households have been getting since October. You can read more about that here.

Regarding the licence fee hike, a Canal and River Trust spokesman said: "Our historic canal network is facing a shortage of funding as we focus on the core role of keeping it open and navigable. The pressures of an ageing network, increasingly vulnerable to the threat of climate change, together with cost inflation and government income that is reducing in real terms, is leaving us with a budget shortfall that we must address to safeguard navigation.

 

The Kennet and Avon Canal in Bath

 

New canal licence fees will 'price boaters off the water', group says - Somerset Live

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Any licence increase that differentiates between those with and those without a home mooring is going to set one group against another. There's no sensible logic to singling one group out for an increase for the use of the towpath. 

 

 

Edited by Higgs
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CARTs assertion that canals are "increasingly vulnerable to the threat of cliomate change" is surely specious. Are they suggesting that canals haven't got hotter in the summer and colder in the winter over the last 200 or so years?

    What do you mean by "Calans like the K&A"? Are you suggesting different licence fees for different canals?

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1 minute ago, Athy said:

CARTs assertion that canals are "increasingly vulnerable to the threat of cliomate change" is surely specious. Are they suggesting that canals haven't got hotter in the summer and colder in the winter over the last 200 or so years?

    What do you mean by "Calans like the K&A"? Are you suggesting different licence fees for different canals?

 

The article is from a 'local paper' which has the K&A Calan in its area, so I guess they were trying to make 'local news'.

Edited by Alan de Enfield
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5 minutes ago, Athy said:

Ah, I see. There was no indication that the topic title was a quotation, rather than of your own invention, hence my comment.

 

One assumed (always a risk with an unknown audience) that when you opened the (included) website link that you would have seen :

 

 

 

 

 

Screenshot (1998).png

Edited by Alan de Enfield
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9 minutes ago, Athy said:

Ah, I see. There was no indication that the topic title was a quotation, rather than of your own invention, hence my comment.

Most of Alan's post are cut and pasted from online news articles.

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8 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

One assumed (always a risk with an unknown audience) that when you opened the (included) website link that you would have seen :

 

 

 

 

 

Screenshot (1998).png

One assumed incorrectly. Readers don't open a web site linkm before reading the topic title!

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4 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

One assumed (always a risk with an unknown audience) that when you opened the (included) website link that you would have seen :

 

 

 

 

 

Screenshot (1998).png

As the article was quoted, there seemed no reason to open the link.especially as it's the usual stuff from the NBTA. There is of course no reason that differential fees should pit boaters against each other - there are several different rates of road tax, for example, and I haven't noticed motorists hating each other any more than usual.

I suppse CCers might start abusing home moorers if the former's fees go up, but it's pretty unlikely.

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3 minutes ago, Rob-M said:

Most of Alan's post are cut and pasted from online news articles.

Thanks for that information. Alan's posts are often a good source of waterways news, but I thought that he usually wrote them himself.

4 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

Not specious. Climate change doesn’t necessarily mean hotter and colder. Climate change, as the name suggests, creates a change in the climate such that the frequency of severe weather events increases. Those directly affecting the canals would be long periods of drought and violent rain storms causing flooding that overtops sections of canal and causes serious damage, eg the 3 locks on the C&H. More storm force winds causing trees to get blown over and structural damage to buildings.

Hmm.

So, droughts, storms and heavy rain are recent inventions?

I rather think that our canals were built to withstand such conditions.

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I don't understand why canals should be excluded from basic market forces. 

 

There is a lot of demand and a lot of people will pay more. Take the money! It is obvious ! 

 

Some people will be priced out so what? This is how the world works. If you can't afford it or have other financial priorities and are unable to claim via state housing provisions then don't have a boat. 

 

The cut has basically filled up with people who used to squat residential buildings. Some of them got all shouty and squatting was criminalised. 

 

Same problem is gradually creeping up on the canals. Too much noise. 

 

 

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25 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Earlier this year, the Canal and River Trust announced the hike and said it was needed to cover a funding shortfall. The decision follows a real-term decline in government support since 2021 ...

 

The real-term decline in government support has been going on since 2015/16. This is because only part of the grant was indexed linked between that year and 2020/21.
 
The grant agreement was changed to mitigate the impact of a negative deflator from 2020/21 onwards. The effect of this was to give CRT more money than it was entitled to under the original agreement!


 

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Even more proof!

2 minutes ago, Athy said:

Thank you for your kind words. No, I am not a meteorologist.

You obviously are, so perhaps you'd let us all know if it will be raining over the Easter weekend.

 

46 minutes ago, Athy said:

CARTs assertion that canals are "increasingly vulnerable to the threat of cliomate change" is surely specious. Are they suggesting that canals haven't got hotter in the summer and colder in the winter over the last 200 or so years?

 

Which just proves how little you understand about climate change.

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14 minutes ago, Athy said:

Thanks for that information. Alan's posts are often a good source of waterways news, but I thought that he usually wrote them himself.

Hmm.

So, droughts, storms and heavy rain are recent inventions?

I rather think that our canals were built to withstand such conditions.

 

I think you need to visit the Rochdale canal after one of the not too infrequent flooding events 😀, and also look at the new infrastructure getting built to cope with the flooding, the original design was just not adequate.

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1 minute ago, Orwellian said:

 

 

 

Which just proves how little you understand about climate change.

Duplicate post I think - you had posted this already.

I note that, despite your apparent expertise, you haven't given us the Easter forecast yet. Come on, step lively now.

Just now, dmr said:

 

I think you need to visit the Rochdale canal after one of the not too infrequent flooding events 😀, and also look at the new infrastructure getting built to cope with the flooding, the original design was just not adequate.

It took them 200 years to find out? 

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7 minutes ago, Athy said:

Duplicate post I think - you had posted this already.

I note that, despite your apparent expertise, you haven't given us the Easter forecast yet. Come on, step lively now.

It took them 200 years to find out? 

You seriously expect essential investment in this country to be done in less than two centuries? Check out flood defences oop north  or sea defences in Norfolk.

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5 minutes ago, Athy said:

 

It took them 200 years to find out? 

We found out on Boxing Day 2015, then again on 9th February 2020. After the boat club, clubhouse was flooded for a second time I rang the EA and asked "if we demolished the clubhouse and build it x feet higher how high would x feet need to be to be safe in the future?" The EA chap said he had no idea.

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57 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

The article is from a 'local paper' which has the K&A Calan in its area, so I guess they were trying to make 'local news'.

 

Oh, I thought it was an American publication after reading the line

'However, the NBTA said raising fees would push the boating community further toward the breadline and pit bargees against each other'

 

Or perhaps missing the s from the end of towards was just a typo  😕

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56 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

One assumed (always a risk with an unknown audience) that when you opened the (included) website link that you would have seen :

 

 

 

 

 

Screenshot (1998).png

 

 

It's never a great idea to open links in posts to sites one knows nothing about.

 

 

So I for one here have only read what you wrote, not the links.

 

 

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