Yes its the Daily Mail, but its still news?

[robtheplod]

Young people who bought canal boats after being priced out of conventional London property market fear they could soon be homeless after Canal and River Trust announces plans to raise boat licenses by up to 75 percent | Daily Mail Online

 

A friend sent this to me, honest!

Edited April 14 by robtheplod

[GUMPY]

 

[dmr]

NBTA are very good at getting publicity for their (one) side of the story, and it works.

During all those little conversations that we have with the public at locks I have during previous campaigns been told "CRT are going to evict you all if you don't travel 100 miles every month" (or whatever).

 

And evicting attractive young professional couples with children, or disabled old men 😀, is a much better story that the 1995 waterways act and a funding gap etc.

[frangar]

It’s just very frustrating that it seems CRT are incapable of putting their side of the argument in any meaningful way. 

[Lady M]

Why can't they see the difference between 'I have to move after 14 days' and 'I can stay here for up to 14 days if I so wish'. 

[MtB]

3 minutes ago, Lady M said:

Why can't they see the difference between 'I have to move after 14 days' and 'I can stay here for up to 14 days if I so wish'. 

 

With the current level of enforcement effort (or lack of) they don't have to move, at all, ever.

 

 

 

Enforcement seemed to vanish during Covid, and never got going again after.

 

 

 

[Lady M]

Yes, but when they move water is consumed and sometimes the infrastructure is broken.  It is a really difficult situation based on a bad law.

[MtB]

1 minute ago, Lady M said:

Yes, but when they move water is consumed and sometimes the infrastructure is broken.  It is a really difficult situation based on a bad law.

 

The practical solution is to charge all boats on the water £20 a night to moor anywhere out on the towpath. 

[GUMPY]

1 minute ago, MtB said:

 

The practical solution is to charge all boats on the water £20 a night to moor anywhere out on the towpath. 

 

It has to be more than the cost of a full time  mooring in that area divided by 365.

£15 would be more reasonable outside London.

 

[Lady M]

What, including bona fide home moorers?  I wonder how much it would cost CRT to collect and process all those £20 payments.  Doesn't adding a surcharge to the licence achieve a similar, if smaller, outcome?  Perhaps all the boaters would move onto a different navigation authority's water.

[magpie patrick]

8 minutes ago, Lady M said:

Yes, but when they move water is consumed and sometimes the infrastructure is broken.  It is a really difficult situation based on a bad law.

"When we use the canals we might damage them, so we're going to stay put and get in the way of people who do want to use them" 

 

Not moving to avoid wear and tear on the system defeats the very point of having a canal system 

[Higgs]

10 minutes ago, Lady M said:

What, including bona fide home moorers? 

 

Yep. They'd love it. 

 

£5.00 a lock; £20.00 for the Elsan; £10.00 for the rubbish; £15.00 for a water fill up. The potential is endless. 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 14 by Higgs

[MtB]

8 minutes ago, Lady M said:

What, including bona fide home moorers?  I wonder how much it would cost CRT to collect and process all those £20 payments.  Doesn't adding a surcharge to the licence achieve a similar, if smaller, outcome?  Perhaps all the boaters would move onto a different navigation authority's water.

 

No home moorers exempt obviously.

 

This would make it very cheap to collect. Do you have a home mooring? No? So you must be towpath mooring 365 nights a year. Here's your bill.

 

 

[Alan de Enfield]

12 minutes ago, MtB said:

The practical solution is to charge all boats on the water £20 a night to moor anywhere out on the towpath. 

 

Lumpy Water example :

 

We have a home mooring for which we pay ~£3500 per annum (36' x 14') we pay 30p unit for our leccy, have free showers, free laundry and 24 hour security (staff walking around checking lines etc thru the night).

 

When we go out cruising and choose to use a mooring (rather than just anchor up) the typical charge is £35 per night (Use of toilets, showers, water & electric included). Go coastal 'marina hopping' can get expensive.

 

So £20 a night for mooring up with no 'facilities' doesn't look that bad.

[Higgs]

5 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Lumpy Water example :

 

We have a home mooring for which we pay ~£3500 per annum (36' x 14') we pay 30p unit for our leccy, have free showers, free laundry and 24 hour security (staff walking around checking lines etc thru the night).

 

When we go out cruising and choose to use a mooring (rather than just anchor up) the typical charge is £35 per night (Use of toilets, showers, water & electric included). Go coastal 'marina hopping' can get expensive.

 

So £20 a night for mooring up with no 'facilities' doesn't look that bad.

 

What do you pay for your licence? We'll all have to try anchoring up, away from the bank.

 

 

 

Edited April 14 by Higgs

[ditchcrawler]

1 minute ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Lumpy Water example :

 

We have a home mooring for which we pay ~£3500 per annum (36' x 14') we pay 30p unit for our leccy, have free showers, free laundry and 24 hour security (staff walking around checking lines etc thru the night).

 

When we go out cruising and choose to use a mooring (rather than just anchor up) the typical charge is £35 per night (Use of toilets, showers, water & electric included). Go coastal 'marina hopping' can get expensive.

 

So £20 a night for mooring up with no 'facilities' doesn't look that bad.

About the same if you go marina hopping on the canals except you will pay fore washing machines and electricity 

[TheBiscuits]

10 minutes ago, Higgs said:

 

What do you pay for your licence? We'll all have to try anchoring up, away from the bank.

 

He doesn't pay for a licence because it's not CRTs water

[Higgs]

Just now, TheBiscuits said:

 

He doesn't pay for a licence because it's not CRTs water

 

I know. He should be paying about £3000 a year, for a licence, for his twin tub hull boat. He and others seem to enjoy spending other people's money.

 

 

[Alan de Enfield]

4 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

He doesn't pay for a licence because it's not CRTs water

 

Correct, but we are discussing mooring fees.

Both CCers and HMers still have to pay (until this year) the same licence, so the only difference is paying a mooring fee or not.

 

The proposal is to introduce a mooring fee for every boat on a per night basis.

A ccer would pay 365 nights mooring fee, a HMer would pay only the mooring fee when "out and about".

 

Revert back to everyone pays the same licence fee (for the 'same' boat) and everyone pays the same per night mooring fee.

 

Simples.

Edited April 14 by Alan de Enfield

[MtB]

1 minute ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Correct, but we are discussing mooring fees.

Both CCers and HMers still have to pay (until this year) the same licence, so the only difference is paying a mooring fee or not.

 

The proposal is to introduce a mooring fee for every boat on a per night basis.

A ccer would pay 365 nights mooring fee, a HMer would pay only the mooring fee when "out and about".

 

 

Exactly. 

 

This suggestion seems to address and correct the fundamental unfairness of CCers getting to moor for free. 

[Higgs]

4 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Correct, but we are discussing mooring fees.

Both CCers and HMers still have to pay (until this year) the same licence, so the only difference is paying a mooring fee or not.

 

The proposal is to introduce a mooring fee for every boat on a per night basis.

A ccer would pay 365 nights mooring fee, a HMer would pay only the mooring fee when "out and about".

 

I think the question of mooring is something like the airlines trying to get you to pay for a seat. You don't have pay extra for a seat, they've got to give you one. If CRT don't want people drifting around, they have to offer a mooring place to stop, to get out of the way. 

Edited April 14 by Higgs

[MtB]

5 minutes ago, Higgs said:

 

I think the question of mooring is something like the airlines trying to get you to pay for a seat. You don't have pay extra for a seat, they've got to give you one. If CRT don't want people drifting around, they have to offer a mooring place to stop, to get out of the way. 

 

Cobblers.

 

Paying to moor overnight works perfectly well on The Thames.

 

 

 

[Higgs]

5 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

Cobblers.

 

Paying to moor overnight works perfectly well on The Thames.

 

Ok. That's true. Mostly private property. You happy for home moorers to join in? 

 

 

Edited April 14 by Higgs

[MtB]

5 minutes ago, Higgs said:

 

Ok. That's true. Mostly private property. You happy for home moorers to join in? 

 

 

 

 

Yes of course.

 

 

 

[Higgs]

Just now, MtB said:

Yes of course.

 

Home moorers - you want then to pay this fee, anywhere they moor that isn't their home mooring, on CRT waters?