George Ward evicted.

[Heartland]

I wonder how much George Ward played on his personal rights. It is a facet of modern society that some use their rights as a weapon.

 

Have CRT introduced a stronger management team to deal with the situation created by people like Mr Ward and how far will they go. Continuous cruising means exactly that not moving a short distance when needed. However, in the days of the working boat, some craft worked short distances, but then the boatmen lived on land!

[Barneyp]

On 18/05/2023 at 22:48, MtB said:

 

I don't think CRT have anything like enough staff to move on all the boaters encouraged to push the envelope by the success of Mr Ward sticking two fingers up at CRT for a whole decade. 

They don't need to target them all, just go for the worst offenders, if CRT are seen to be taking more action and being stricter and faster many of those who bend the rules a bit will start to take the warning letters more seriously.

[Arthur Marshall]

20 minutes ago, Heartland said:

I wonder how much George Ward played on his personal rights. It is a facet of modern society that some use their rights as a weapon.

 

Have CRT introduced a stronger management team to deal with the situation created by people like Mr Ward and how far will they go. Continuous cruising means exactly that not moving a short distance when needed. However, in the days of the working boat, some craft worked short distances, but then the boatmen lived on land!

If you've got rights to something , then you're surely entitled to fight for them? Otherwise they ain't rights.

The argument is over what rights you actually have, and staying in one place for ten years when any agreement you sign says you can't, isn't one.

[Pluto]

You only have rights if you are prepared to take the responsibilities that come with them, which include the consequences and effects on others of those rights. After all, they have rights as well.

[Arthur Marshall]

3 hours ago, Pluto said:

You only have rights if you are prepared to take the responsibilities that come with them, which include the consequences and effects on others of those rights. After all, they have rights as well.

Not so. You simply can't have conditional rights. You either have them or you don't. Whether you behave responsibly is another matter, but doesn't affect your rights. Legally, say, you have the right not to have your stuff stolen, and leaving your car unlocked with the key in the ignition may be irresponsible (and stupid), but it doesn't legitamise the subsequent theft .

What it really means is that most so-called rights are nonsense, more wishful thinking of what it would be nice if everyone could have them. Any legal rights you have (to vote, say, or own property), have generally been fought for by someone a year or two back and can easily be lost when you forget that and take them for granted. Non-legal ones, like the claimed right to a settled lifestyle, to have children, housing, and currently to pick your own gender (to include one to get the rightwingers on here to start frothing) are just discussion points, not rights.

[Pluto]

You're right, but I still think people need to take responsibility for their actions. 

[Paul C]

On 20/05/2023 at 08:48, Heartland said:

I wonder how much George Ward played on his personal rights.

 

What ones, specifically? And that's why CRT go to court (they don't need to), its to consider ECHR, Equalities Act applicability, etc. His opportunity to "play on" those was missed; or his advisors (Nick Brown?? of NBTA???), goofed up.

[Arthur Marshall]

5 hours ago, Pluto said:

You're right, but I still think people need to take responsibility for their actions. 

Absolutely. People rarely do, though. If George had taken any responsibility, he wouldn't be lighting fires and dumping stuff on the towpath, and him and many others would accept that in any society, there are consensus rules that you have to live by or pay the penalty. People forget that everything from emptying dog muck bins to maintaining canals has to be paid for, which is largely why the fences and trees are full of little black bags and the latter is falling to bits, which George and those of his ilk have contributed to mightily over the past ten years.

[sueb]

So what happens now? George is living on the towpath in a tent with his stuff. Will he be staying there for another 10 years?

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

I think it’s time George and CRT come to a compromise and begin to work together. 

If CRT gave him a blue shirt he could become a Towpath Fundraiser. 
He’s in the right place and could work day and/or night. 
 

Dunno why he didn’t think of it before, they’d have given him a Free of Charge license and there’d have been no issue. 

Damn, why didn’t he think of that?
 

[MtB]

1 hour ago, sueb said:

So what happens now? George is living on the towpath in a tent with his stuff. Will he be staying there for another 10 years?

 

Is he? 

 

Do we know this for a fact or is it just supposition?

 

I can imagine him electing to do that given his attachment to the spot and a lot of people have assumed he would default to a tent, but has he actually? 

 

 

[ditchcrawler]

7 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

Is he? 

 

Do we know this for a fact or is it just supposition?

 

I can imagine him electing to do that given his attachment to the spot and a lot of people have assumed he would default to a tent, but has he actually? 

 

 

Maybe ask the Wiltshire paper, it would give them a good story

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

I’ve a 5 metre bell tent George could have but I can’t get it to him. 
 

Theres a photo on another thread of George in a tent someone’s given him. 
 

He could use mine for guests or a music room. 
 

Edited May 21, 2023 by Goliath

[MtB]

47 minutes ago, Goliath said:

I’ve a 5 metre bell tent George could have but I can’t get it to him. 
 

Theres a photo on another thread of George in a tent someone’s given him. 
 

He could use mine for guests or a music room. 
 

 

 

I would imagine it is easier to evict someone from dossing on the towpath than in a boat by using the vagrancy laws.

 

 

 

 

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

3 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

 

I would imagine it is easier to evict someone from dossing on the towpath than in a boat by using the vagrancy laws.

 

 

 

 

I imagine with him living in a tent he could add a little charm to the towpath. 
perhaps allow him to peddle goods and along with Towpath Fundraising it’d be a positive attribute. 🤷‍♀️
Perhaps with a go fund me page he could get enough money together to take a Phil Spector course on painting roses. 
And flog buckets and such daft stuff the tourists like. 

[MtB]

6 minutes ago, Goliath said:

I imagine with him living in a tent he could add a little charm to the towpath. 
perhaps allow him to peddle goods and along with Towpath Fundraising it’d be a positive attribute. 🤷‍♀️
Perhaps with a go fund me page he could get enough money together to take a Phil Spector course on painting roses. 
And flog buckets and such daft stuff the tourists like. 

 

 

I agree. Well done for not rising to the bait. 

 

George is full of community spirit judging by his attitude in the videos. I'm sure he'd do the painting course and sell shit to passers-by quite  happily. 

 

 

I had no idea Phil Spector did painting courses by the way. Is he even alive?!

 

Did Phil Speight give him him the course material?

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

Was there bait involved?

Cant see George as a fisherman.

Cruel sports and all. 
 

Anyone met him?

 

 

Mind I guess if his hovel had a thatched roof? 

 

Edited May 21, 2023 by Goliath

[Tim Lewis]

9 hours ago, MtB said:

 

 

I agree. Well done for not rising to the bait. 

 

George is full of community spirit judging by his attitude in the videos. I'm sure he'd do the painting course and sell shit to passers-by quite  happily. 

 

 

I had no idea Phil Spector did painting courses by the way. Is he even alive?!

 

Did Phil Speight give him him the course material?

 

Phil Spector died in 2021 whilst serving a jail sentence for murder!

 

 

[Heartland]

As the towpath belongs to the CRT they could chose to have tent dwellers removed. But that could also be a lengthy process. There was a tent dweller in Stechford recently by the Richmond. That tent was on a central reservation of the carriageway. The tent has gone now but it took time for it to go.

[Hudds Lad]

3 minutes ago, Heartland said:

As the towpath belongs to the CRT they could chose to have tent dwellers removed. But that could also be a lengthy process. There was a tent dweller in Stechford recently by the Richmond. That tent was on a central reservation of the carriageway. The tent has gone now but it took time for it to go.

We came across a chap in a tent on the Oxford last year (now gone) but was on the offside. First alerted to his presence by something landing in the cut a few hundred yards in front of us (turned out to be a bag of his freshly minted sh1t). He proceeded to have a very long, loud and sweary argument with himself, which was quite upsetting for the young family walking on the towpath. Plainly someone with problems who needed a lot more help than he was currently getting  

[MtB]

There was a chap lived for a good 30 years in a construction of cardboard boxes etc on the central reservation of the A4 underneath the Chiswick flyover on the M4 as it entered London. He sometimes put signs up saying stuff like "Leave me alone, I don't want your charity". He finally vanished along with his cardboard city about five years ago. Another George Ward but in his case, he really was causing no harm or inconvenience to anyone, as far as I could tell.

[magnetman]

51 minutes ago, Heartland said:

As the towpath belongs to the CRT they could chose to have tent dwellers removed. But that could also be a lengthy process. 

 

if the tents are left empty with nobody around I'm pretty sure it is classed as littering so can be removed without any complicated processes. 

 

I don't know this for sure but there was a tent and a buildup of rubbish in a park near me in inner London and then one day everything, including the litter (there was a lot of rubbish) was gone. 

 

 

 

 

I assume the land owner, in this case the council, sent their litter clearance team out and just got it dealt with. 

 

 

 

 

The CRT are going to be on very dodgy ground (pun intended) if they don't deal with inappropriate use of their land. Mooring boats is one thing but moving onto the land itself is a whole different story for obvious reasons. 

 

They need to deal with this fast. 

 

 

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

4 hours ago, Tim Lewis said:

 

Phil Spector died in 2021 whilst serving a jail sentence for murder!

 

 

His buckets and mops will be worth more now he’s deceased. 

[Arthur Marshall]

4 minutes ago, Goliath said:

His buckets and mops will be worth more now he’s deceased. 

I believe he had them all lined up against a very sound wall.

[Alan de Enfield]

5 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

I believe he had them all lined up against a very sound wall.

 

 

Firing Squad ?