Jump to content

Sign the petition against BW licence fee increases!

Continuous cruiser

By Continuous cruiser
in General Boating

 Share

Featured Posts

Continuous cruiser Gongoozler

Continuous cruiser

Posted
Posted

I have started a petition on the Number 10 website against the proposed increases in boat licence fees. It's here:

 

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Boat-licence-fee/

 

The petition reads:

 

"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Stop British Waterways from charging Continuous Cruisers and Wide Beam boats any surcharges on top of the standard boat licence fee and to stop British Waterways from introducing a Roving Mooring Permit.

 

More details from petition creator:

To justify these proposals BW states that most continuous cruisers are using their boat as their home, do not have any other accommodation costs and consequently have a higher willingness to pay. When the consequence of not paying the boat licence fee is having one’s boat destroyed and thus losing one’s home, this amounts to extortion."

 

Please sign it!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Steilsteven Rising Star

Steilsteven

Posted
Posted
I have started a petition on the Number 10 website against the proposed increases in boat licence fees. It's here:

 

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Boat-licence-fee/

 

The petition reads:

 

"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Stop British Waterways from charging Continuous Cruisers and Wide Beam boats any surcharges on top of the standard boat licence fee and to stop British Waterways from introducing a Roving Mooring Permit.

 

More details from petition creator:

To justify these proposals BW states that most continuous cruisers are using their boat as their home, do not have any other accommodation costs and consequently have a higher willingness to pay. When the consequence of not paying the boat licence fee is having one’s boat destroyed and thus losing one’s home, this amounts to extortion."

 

Please sign it!

 

Don't just sign it but also forward it to all your contacts and encourage them to do the same,this is the fastest way to boost numbers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
TheWilk Collaborator

TheWilk

Posted
Posted

er, what do I put down as my address?!

 

As someone who lives on the Lancaster Canal, I have absolutely no need for a permanent mooring as I have to move my boat every two weeks for water and pump out. There's only one marina that provides pump out and you're technically not allowed to live aboard at the marina anyway.

 

Also, being a female living alone I wouldn't feel safe being stuck in the same place for long periods. Unless I could meet my potential neighbours first and get to know them extremely well (seeing as their windows would be 2ft away from mine and my boat isn't soundproof) I wouldn't feel secure in a marina.

 

Online BW moorings are a complete waste of money. Unless they provide secure parking, hook up and a postal address they have no advantage at all over visitor moorings.

 

This policy is pointlessly bureaucratic and serves only BW. It's not what boaters want or need at all. If I wanted to live in one place I'd live in a house.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Boatgypsy Collaborator

Boatgypsy

Posted
Posted

Someone elsewhere on here has said that BW have announced that they will be making a statement on this matter next week. If true, that comes very quickly after closing the consultation, which suggests that either they are abandoning the idea because of the negative feedback from the consultation, or they had decided to go ahead anyway and were just going through the motions of consultation.

 

If this happens, perhaps the Ombudsman should receive as many complaints as possible to get BW to do the consultation again properly, notwithstanding the petition.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
twocvbloke Rising Star

twocvbloke

Posted
Posted
the next move after this might be coin operated locks related to water usage or log burner tax related to pollution. I bet they have a whole host of crazy schemes waiting to get implimented and none of them are going to make it cheaper.

 

The easiest response to that is, don't pay, if everybody stops paying, they'll panic... :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
mayalld Veteran II

mayalld

Posted
Posted
I have started a petition on the Number 10 website against the proposed increases in boat licence fees. It's here:

 

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Boat-licence-fee/

 

The petition reads:

 

"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Stop British Waterways from charging Continuous Cruisers and Wide Beam boats any surcharges on top of the standard boat licence fee and to stop British Waterways from introducing a Roving Mooring Permit.

 

More details from petition creator:

To justify these proposals BW states that most continuous cruisers are using their boat as their home, do not have any other accommodation costs and consequently have a higher willingness to pay. When the consequence of not paying the boat licence fee is having one's boat destroyed and thus losing one's home, this amounts to extortion."

 

Please sign it!

 

Erm, no.

 

Whilst there are genuine cc-ers who play by the rules, it seems to me that there are far more who are taking the Carling.

 

Until such time as the "genuine" cc-ers stand up and unambiguously condemn the continuous moorers, those who try to push the rules to the limit, and those who spend their every waking moment trying to find a loophole in the rules, there will be no support from this boater.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Chris J W Influencer

Chris J W

Posted
Posted
Erm, no.

 

Whilst there are genuine cc-ers who play by the rules, it seems to me that there are far more who are taking the Carling.

 

Until such time as the "genuine" cc-ers stand up and unambiguously condemn the continuous moorers, those who try to push the rules to the limit, and those who spend their every waking moment trying to find a loophole in the rules, there will be no support from this boater.

 

Firstly; there's a big difference between the issue of 'Continuous Moorers' and the issue of licence increase for any variety of boaters.

 

Secondly; so in what manner should cc-ers stand up and unambiguously condemn the continuous moorers?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
TheWilk Collaborator

TheWilk

Posted
Posted
Erm, no.

 

Whilst there are genuine cc-ers who play by the rules, it seems to me that there are far more who are taking the Carling.

 

Until such time as the "genuine" cc-ers stand up and unambiguously condemn the continuous moorers, those who try to push the rules to the limit, and those who spend their every waking moment trying to find a loophole in the rules, there will be no support from this boater.

 

 

I'm sick of this condescending attitude about "genuine ccers". There's only CCers who comply to BW's own self-serving definition and those who don't. It could even be argued that playing by the rules (especially completely arbitrary and money-grabbing rules) could even make you LESS genuine, seeing as you must have the time and money to spend the year moving around the network, so no genuine need for fair and sensible guidelines from BW.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
blackrose Veteran II

blackrose

Posted
Posted (edited)
I'm sick of this condescending attitude about "genuine ccers". There's only CCers who comply to BW's own self-serving definition and those who don't. It could even be argued that playing by the rules (especially completely arbitrary and money-grabbing rules) could even make you LESS genuine, seeing as you must have the time and money to spend the year moving around the network, so no genuine need for fair and sensible guidelines from BW.

 

Seems to me like BW's divide and rule policy is working amongst some of us. I'm not a CCer because I've done it and I know how hard that way of life is, especially in winter. So I ended up paying through the nose for a mooring. Still, that was my choice and I get the benefits of the mooring, so I've nothing against those who choose not to have a mooring. I'm really not interested in the petty bickering about how often they should move or how far. As long as they pay their licence, don't leave loads of crap on the towpath and make some attempt at actually moving every so often then good luck to them!

 

Does anyone know what will happen if you continuously cruise but take up a winter mooring every year. Will you still have to pay the 150.00 or will you pay a proportion of the fee.

 

That's a very good point. If a CCer who pays for a winter mooring then has to then pay this additional fee couldn't they claim that was unfair?

Edited by blackrose
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Chris J W Influencer

Chris J W

Posted
Posted (edited)
That's a very good point. If a CCer who pays for a winter mooring then has to then pay this additional fee couldn't they claim that was unfair?

 

I suspect BW would point out that CC-er's don't need a winter mooring and it's their choice to legitimately stay still for a while.

 

 

[edit to add the 'legitimately' bit for clarification]

Edited by Chris J W
Link to comment
Share on other sites
TheWilk Collaborator

TheWilk

Posted
Posted
Seems to me like BW's divide and rule policy is working amongst some of us. I'm not a CCer because I've done it and I know how hard that way of life is, especially in winter. So I ended up paying through the nose for a mooring. Still, that was my choice and I get the benefits of the mooring, so I've nothing against those who choose not to have a mooring. I'm really not interested in the petty bickering about how often they should move or how far. As long as they pay their licence, don't leave loads of crap on the towpath and make some attempt at actually moving every so often then good luck to them!

 

This is exactly it, as I said before, if there were any benefits to having a permanent mooring I'd try and find the money for one.

 

This is why I resent being labelled a 'scrounger' as I've seen elsewhere, I don't try to avoid paying for anything, it's just very hard to lead my life in compliance with BWs arbitrary rules. Does anyone thinksthat BW are going to take the extra £150 and go straight out and spend it on anything that will benefit boaters?

 

I pay my way, I don't hog popular moorings, I look out for other boaters, I report broken pump-outs and support canal side businesses. All year round.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Jason Wilson and Family Proficient

Jason Wilson and Family

Posted
Posted
This is why I resent being labelled a 'scrounger' as I've seen elsewhere, I don't try to avoid paying for anything, it's just very hard to lead my life in compliance with BWs arbitrary rules. Does anyone thinksthat BW are going to take the extra £150 and go straight out and spend it on anything that will benefit boaters?

 

Of course, next year there will be a larger profit and the directors will have 'earned' a better bonus than the meager one they receive now. That helps us all doesn't it? Even the most avid members of the 'irrational hate for cruisers' club ought to be in agreement with turning down any more increases from BW. Who the hell is going to be able to afford boating of any sort if they keep getting their way for every stupid increase? What sort of idiot is okay with this profiteering driving the system into the ground?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.