No "National Boat Check" Next Year ?

[alan_fincher]

See final paragraph of this item from this month's "Boater's Newsletter"

 

Link to item

[cotswoldsman]

See final paragraph of this item from this month's "Boater's Newsletter"

 

Link to item

 

So no need to go into hiding next November.

[alan_fincher]

So no need to go into hiding next November.

Apparently not!, and if you believe their figures about evasion and enforcement, we are only a year or two away from a situation where people will be queuing up to buy a licence, even though they don't actually have a boat on BW waters, I think!

[cotswoldsman]

Apparently not!, and if you believe their figures about evasion and enforcement, we are only a year or two away from a situation where people will be queuing up to buy a licence, even though they don't actually have a boat on BW waters, I think!

 

When BW allow me to collect my licence from a local office my boat might even look legal.

[Nickhlx]

I was so impressed with all their good service they have done this year I licensed my boat twice and gave them a donation....

 

Nick

 

[ditchcrawler]

See final paragraph of this item from this month's "Boater's Newsletter"

 

Link to item

They don't need to,they have people on the towing path full time checking them. When he does Napton/Maston Doles he leaves his car at our moorings.

[Chris Pink]

I saw their figures for licence evasion 2 years ago and, if I could be bothered or had the time, could have proved them to be lies.

 

So the truth is out now; Simon Salem will award himself big pat on the back and line up, pudgy paw out, for his fat bonus based on reducing licence evasion. And the enforcement cabal grows in self-importance at the expense of maintaining the canal system.

 

If there was an independent check then there might be more credibility in this report.

 

 

It would be nice if they were as good at running a canal system as they are at running their cosy little scams.

Edited December 17, 2009 by Chris Pink

[ladymary]

Joking apart.

What should you do when to know there's a boat with no license,but now covered with a tarp?

Turn a blind eye or dob them in.

[bottle]

Turn a blind eye or dob them in.

 

Yes.

[Bob the welder]

Joking apart.

What should you do when to know there's a boat with no license,but now covered with a tarp?

Turn a blind eye or dob them in.

dob them in .you pay. i pay . they pay.bob.

[carlt]

Joking apart.

What should you do when to know there's a boat with no license,but now covered with a tarp?

Turn a blind eye or dob them in.

So how, exactly, without the benefit of BW's database, do you know a boat is unlicensed?

 

Or is that "knowledge" merely groundless assumption?

[ladymary]

No sign of displayed license for the last 6 months

[ditchcrawler]

No sign of displayed license for the last 6 months

An awful lot of boats have licences but don't display them

[Smelly]

We are, so we're told, licensed, however the powers that be have failed three times to provide the documentation to advertise in our window.

 

A complaint would, to my mind, be a waste of my tax license dollar.

 

We've enough busybodys around these parts that I'm surprised the Powers That Be haven't knocked on our door.

 

Would you?

[cotswoldsman]

dob them in.

 

what is that? Do you mean throw them in the canal?

 

We are, so we're told, licensed, however the powers that be have failed three times to provide the documentation to advertise in our window.

 

A complaint would, to my mind, be a waste of my tax license dollar.

 

We've enough busybodys around these parts that I'm surprised the Powers That Be haven't knocked on our door.

 

Would you?

 

I don't display an up to date licence as I am a CCer and BW refuse to send licence anywhere but my registered address and as there is no one there licence stays there. I asked them if they would send it to Wigan office as it is within a bus ride from where I am but was told no.

But then it does not really matter anyway except I guess to curtain twitchers.

Hope I don't get dobed in as canal looks very cold.

[simon-l]

I applied for a 12 month and a one week license simultaneously at the BW agents office at Sawley in August.

 

The payment for the one week license went through on the credit card but the 12 month payment was never taken.

 

I chased it by email and phone to no effect and eventually just filled in,backdated and sent in the 12 month license paperwork all over again.

 

That time they did take the money for the 12 month license.

 

Still no sign of it arriving 'though - 4 months later - luckily I am in a marina as I have absolutely nothing to display....

 

Simon.

 

 

what is that? Do you mean throw them in the canal?

 

 

 

I don't display an up to date licence as I am a CCer and BW refuse to send licence anywhere but my registered address and as there is no one there licence stays there. I asked them if they would send it to Wigan office as it is within a bus ride from where I am but was told no.

But then it does not really matter anyway except I guess to curtain twitchers.

Hope I don't get dobed in as canal looks very cold.

[Giggetty]

I applied for a 12 month and a one week license simultaneously at the BW agents office at Sawley in August.

 

The payment for the one week license went through on the credit card but the 12 month payment was never taken.

 

I chased it by email and phone to no effect and eventually just filled in,backdated and sent in the 12 month license paperwork all over again.

 

That time they did take the money for the 12 month license.

 

Still no sign of it arriving 'though - 4 months later - luckily I am in a marina as I have absolutely nothing to display....

 

Simon.

 

when I apply for a term licence via internet, all I get by email is a reference number which I am 'asked to note and have ready for a BW enforcement officer if asked'. No nice road-type disk or vignette like you get for your car in Austria.

[magpie patrick]

I saw their figures for licence evasion 2 years ago and, if I could be bothered or had the time, could have proved them to be lies.

 

Despite what might appear I have a lot of respect for you Chris, but "prove" is a big word, especially when coupled with "lies". BW of course make this more difficult by quoting figures over quite large areas, but as far as I can see you'd have to have data on every boat displaying an index number (I think we have to assume that boats not displaying an index number are unlicensed unless displaying a licence) and know the total number of boats. I might just manage that between Bath and Bradford, or on the G and S, but not over an area to be significant

 

So the truth is out now; Simon Salem will award himself big pat on the back and line up, pudgy paw out, for his fat bonus based on reducing licence evasion. And the enforcement cabal grows in self-importance at the expense of maintaining the canal system.

 

I have worked up and down the waterways with BW staff, campaigners, canal societies and boat users and I have yet to hear anyone have a good word about this man. No doubt one day I will meet him, but I'm not looking forward to it

 

If there was an independent check then there might be more credibility in this report.

 

100% agreed. But they don't like independence, I must be one of the few consultants they've got who can get away with telling them things they don't want to hear.

[Chris Pink]

Despite what might appear I have a lot of respect for you Chris, but "prove" is a big word, especially when coupled with "lies". BW of course make this more difficult by quoting figures over quite large areas, but as far as I can see you'd have to have data on every boat displaying an index number (I think we have to assume that boats not displaying an index number are unlicensed unless displaying a licence) and know the total number of boats. I might just manage that between Bath and Bradford, or on the G and S, but not over an area to be significant

 

Well exactly, I haven't got the time and if they really want to have this 'truth' then they can have it.

 

As you know i am familiar with one of the 'problem' areas and did an ad-hoc survey at the time of the "licence it or lose it" campaign of the boats along the Bath Bradford stretch and with all those boats I could only find 4 boats that had no licence, yes, 4 and BW reckon there are 169 boats moored online in that area.

 

Extrapolating from such a small survey is of course impossible, I can't remember where I read it, but BW asserted 10% unlicenced or unidentified on the KandA

 

Well, Mr Patrick, something is a bit fishy if you ask me.

 

Given that enforcement for the K and A (according to BW reported on another website) cost over £150,000 last year....

[magpie patrick]

I'd agree, in a "problem" area you should at least have found the average. so 16, especially as not having a mooring means you can't get a licence unless you CC.

 

Reality checks are useful, even though they are not necessarily proof.

 

And I hope you noted that I concurred with your overall sentiment

[Chris Pink]

And I hope you noted that I concurred with your overall sentiment

 

I did indeed, Mr Patrick, I consider we are united by our passion for the canals and its boats.

 

If this ethic was at all apparent in the corporate echelons of British Waterways then we could get on with the more serious business of disagreeing with each other.

[Derek R.]

It's quite a wheeze. Get the general public - in this case fellow boat owners - to snitch on one another and save the authority a mess of cost and time. Recognition for bosses as job efficiency and bonus awarded. Individual boat owner made to feel his fellow is 'watching'. Result distrust of all. Divide and conquer. Scoop a reward. A similar scam has been enacted with local pensioners wielding speed cameras against traffic. Sounds like a bit of fun, but could lead to irresponsible behaviour, and is fraught with other problems.

 

If we all saw BW spending their income wisely to the improvement and continued maintenance, I doubt anyone would grudge a license fee. But we don't, and so we do, and now have our fellow boaters to consider as unpaid grassers.

 

There is much to be said for self policing, but the end result should be in a better, more efficient waterway system. What chance?

Self policing works when neighbours look out for one another for their betterment, not out of spite.

As long as money is at the root of it - no good will come of it.

 

Derek