CRT Commission

[BoatingLifeUpNorth2]

21 minutes ago, IanD said:

Isn't that one of the possibilities that was suggested by the Commission?

 

The electric discount would make more sense if there was a roadmap for chargers which would remove the need to have a generator on board, so they could be powered entirely from solar and increasingly-green grid power.

 

As it is such boats use less diesel (or HVO, if it vould be obtained!) than diesel boats, typically about half but could be less depending on how the boat is used -- but whether this justifies the discount is debatable, presumably CART think it does, but many diesel boaters obviously don't... 😉 

 

A discount for paying for a year in advance instead of monthly is very common across many sectors, CART get interest on the money and presumably less hassle in collecting it.

A bit late. I posted that 2 months ago, thought you were on the ball with everything Forum. Old news.

Edited February 15 by BoatingLifeUpNorth2

[IanD]

3 minutes ago, BoatingLifeUpNorth2 said:

A bit late. I posted that 2 months ago, thought you were on the ball with everything Forum. Old news.

Then why repeat yourself? Old news... 😉 

[Alan de Enfield]

1 hour ago, IanD said:

..........if there was a roadmap for chargers

 

I though there already was  - presumably at some locations EBs would need a very long shore-line.

Edited February 15 by Alan de Enfield

[Arthur Marshall]

1 hour ago, waterworks said:

Van dwellers chose to live in vans in full knowledge that no public parking facilities for them exist and that they wouldn't be paying council tax but now want local councils to provide facilities for them. 

I think the word "chose" is a bit inaccurate. You could argue that when I was much younger I "chose" to sleep in bus shelters and park pavilions, but I'm not sure it was a choice I made from many alternatives.

[agg221]

1 hour ago, waterworks said:

Van dwellers chose to live in vans in full knowledge that no public parking facilities for them exist and that they wouldn't be paying council tax but now want local councils to provide facilities for them. 

I'm not at all sure that many of them chose to live in vans, just as I'm not sure that many of the boat dwellers in major cities with housing shortages chose to live in boats. I suspect it was the least bad option. Put it this way - if they were offered a bedsit within their means and with basic security of tenure, how many van dwellers would immediately choose that option? Same question for boat dwellers in city centres if offered a one bedroom flat on similar terms?

 

This is not a new problem, and there is not an easy solution. To quote Scrooge on the poor in A Christmas Carol 'Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses? If they'd rather die, they had better well do it and decrease the surplus population.' That's not to say that CRT was designed to be a housing authority, or that modern councils have a solution either, but it is essential to recognise that living human beings are not going to conveniently disappear or simply become someone else's problem. For someone who can't afford a decent private rent, wouldn't qualify for one anyway as the landlord would see them as a risk, has moved in and out of the unstable world of sofa surfing, hovering on that edge of living on the streets, the stability of a space that is their own, whether that is a boat or a van, is not something they are going to give up lightly and, once you strip it away from them, they have nothing.

 

If there is such a thing as a basic standard of living which would qualify as a right in a civilised country then a roof over your head would have to be part of that. Pragmatically, it is probably a lot cheaper to provide basic pitch type facilities for van dwellers than to build housing units for them. The same is probably true of boat dwellers. That doesn't mean I am happy about overstayers, non-payers of the licence fee etc. or that there are people who could afford to pay but choose not to, but it may be easier (and cheaper) for the government to centrally fund such solutions on a means-tested basis than to meet the cost any other way? Simply banning any practical means of shelter for people on the edge of society isn't, in my opinion, an acceptable option in a civilised society.

 

Alec

 

 

[MtB]

1 hour ago, waterworks said:

Van dwellers chose to live in vans in full knowledge that no public parking facilities for them exist and that they wouldn't be paying council tax but now want local councils to provide facilities for them. 

 

Not sure why. Most of the van dwellers I know are very au fait with all the CRT facilities!

 

 

[IanD]

32 minutes ago, agg221 said:

[snip] That doesn't mean I am happy about overstayers, non-payers of the licence fee etc. or that there are people who could afford to pay but choose not to, but it may be easier (and cheaper) for the government to centrally fund such solutions on a means-tested basis than to meet the cost any other way? Simply banning any practical means of shelter for people on the edge of society isn't, in my opinion, an acceptable option in a civilised society.

 

Alec

 

But that's the problem, isn't it? We don't seem to have a civilised society which cares about such things any more, going by the attitutes/policies of political parties and many -- especially right-wing -- posters on social media... 😞 

[Arthur Marshall]

2 hours ago, agg221 said:

Simply banning any practical means of shelter for people on the edge of society isn't, in my opinion, an acceptable option in a civilised society

It's not even a question of what's civilised, it's what happens if you do ban all these cutprice housing options.  The next step is banning people sleeping on the streets because it makes posh people uncomfortable, and the only option then is to stuff them all in prison, which means you have to let out all the real criminals to make room. The right wing press are already unhappy about that. Me too, tbh.

People have to live somewhere, including poor people and those who simply can't afford housing where they work. Either it's provided legally or systems have to be adjusted to cope with people's own solutions. Building giant estates of expensive houses, which are the only sort builders want to build (logically enough) isn't a solution, and there's no money to fund a mass council house build. So both councils with van dwellers and CRT with fake CCers have to alter the rules to cope and at least try to claw a bit of money back off them. Any other "solution" is bound to fail.

[Mike Coombes]

3 hours ago, MtB said:

 

Not sure why. Most of the van dwellers I know are very au fait with all the CRT facilities!

 

 

 

Saw one Friday using the Recycling and rubbish at Enslow Wharf.