Jump to content

Canal and River Trust Council - Private Boater Elections


alan_fincher

Featured Posts

Have you private boaters cast your important vote in the Canal and River Trust Council elections yet ?

 

We are about half way through the allocated month now, and those elected will serve for four years, so, if you are yet to vote, it is well worth considering carefully who will best represent you.

 

I am a fully independent candidate, as opposed to those being proposed by various boating associations and societies. With just 4 council places to represent all boat owners, I also believe you are best served by independents looking for inclusiveness, trying to work in the best interests the whole boat owning fraternity, rather than those running with an agenda that concentrates on a particular sub-set.

 

If elected, I am committed to making myself as accessible as possible by all, and to listen to YOUR views and concerns. Unlike most of the other candidates, I have already publicised multiple ways that you can contact me directly to ask questions, and made a considerable amount of information about me available.

 

My 150 word election statement can be found here.

 

You can find considerably more supporting information about me here.

 

I also have my own Facebook Group here.

 

It’s an open group, free for all to read, but please ask to be added to it if you would like to post in it.

 

Or you can contact me on........

 

Email: alanforcrt@gmail.com

Mobile: “oh seven nine oh one” 864321

 

.......or of course via the personal message facility on these forums.

 

Please - do make an effort to vote - this is a rare chance to have some say in the future of your waterways.

 

Alan

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You would have my vote too Alan, but my Private Boating voting papers have been cancelled because as well as living aboard I also have a passenger boat with a business license, and apparently I have no option but to select from the 5 Business Boating candidates none of whom I know anything about other than their personal statements, rather than those who will represent my interests in private boating.

 

Roger Hanbury has today confirmed this by phone and while admitting that these were unforeseen circumstances, and would be logged as an issue for future occasions, there is now no turning back and the one vote per person will be enforced even when personal and business interests are clearly not the same. I asked whether I may choose to be a person rather than a business, in order to vote for Private rather than Business representation but was firmly told this is not an option.

 

I'm pretty dissatisfied but with only a couple of weeks left all I can say is I hope you don't lose by a single vote!

 

Any recommendations as to what I can do next?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You would have my vote too Alan, but my Private Boating voting papers have been cancelled because as well as living aboard I also have a passenger boat with a business license, and apparently I have no option but to select from the 5 Business Boating candidates none of whom I know anything about other than their personal statements, rather than those who will represent my interests in private boating.

 

Roger Hanbury has today confirmed this by phone and while admitting that these were unforeseen circumstances, and would be logged as an issue for future occasions, there is now no turning back and the one vote per person will be enforced even when personal and business interests are clearly not the same. I asked whether I may choose to be a person rather than a business, in order to vote for Private rather than Business representation but was firmly told this is not an option.

 

I'm pretty dissatisfied but with only a couple of weeks left all I can say is I hope you don't lose by a single vote!

 

Any recommendations as to what I can do next?

 

That does sound rather unfair.

 

As a liveaboard, you presumably spend a lot more time on your private boat than your passenger one. So on that basis, I

 

would think it reasonable that you should be allocated to the private boater class.

 

There are a lot of anomalies in this first election that largely could not be easily foreseen or catered for.

 

But even with all its imperfections it is a considerable improvement on the previous BW setup where we had no say at all.

 

I am sure CaRT will have learned a lot from this first exercise in democracy and the process will be much refined in the

 

next one in four years' time.

 

PS. Mr Fincher also occupies my no.1 spot. :cheers:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You would have my vote too Alan, but my Private Boating voting papers have been cancelled because as well as living aboard I also have a passenger boat with a business license, and apparently I have no option but to select from the 5 Business Boating candidates none of whom I know anything about other than their personal statements, rather than those who will represent my interests in private boating.

 

Roger Hanbury has today confirmed this by phone and while admitting that these were unforeseen circumstances, and would be logged as an issue for future occasions, there is now no turning back and the one vote per person will be enforced even when personal and business interests are clearly not the same. I asked whether I may choose to be a person rather than a business, in order to vote for Private rather than Business representation but was firmly told this is not an option.

 

I'm pretty dissatisfied but with only a couple of weeks left all I can say is I hope you don't lose by a single vote!

 

Any recommendations as to what I can do next?

 

I am in the same position. I took out a terading license this year but have not yet started trading, but I can't vote for people I know and trust. I can only vote for businresses. Now I'm sure Nigel is a good bloke, but as I have known him for 30 years and he dosen,t even give me a nod passing in the street, and his business interests are nothing like mine, I can't see why I should vote for him. (This is not to disparage Nigel, he is as upright and honest in my experience as any man). There is a candidate called Graham who is representing The Roving Canal Traders Association and he will get my vote. But I cannot vote for the people who I belioeve will represents my interesrts for the best.

Edited by Dr Bradley
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Glad I saw this tread

No voting papers....phoned Electorial Reform Soc.....said they would send them out to me tomorrow.

Anyone else not had voting papers?

 

There was a huge problem early on with very late arrival of papers. The election was meant to start on the Wednesday, and many people had not got the postal version by Saturday, despite BW's claim they had been posted on the Monday. Even allowing for second class post, and the tail end of the bad weather at the time, BW's version that all the packs were posted in time sounded barely plausible!

 

But for anyone who still doesn't have them, it seems highly unlikely they will appear without ringing the ERS, to get them sent.

 

I've not seen any valid explanation why things have been so erratic, but I suspect the ERS have been quite busy on the phone, (where people have bothered to chase it - many who got the alternate emails probably would not have bothered chasing the paper packs).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Roger Hanbury has today confirmed this by phone and while admitting that these were unforeseen circumstances, and would be logged as an issue for future occasions, there is now no turning back and the one vote per person will be enforced even when personal and business interests are clearly not the same. I asked whether I may choose to be a person rather than a business, in order to vote for Private rather than Business representation but was firmly told this is not an option.

 

 

That does seem contradictory to what has been said before, ie one vote per licence. Both Alan Fincher and I have identified in previous postings where the commitment to one vote per licence has been made.

 

Unfortunately, though, the same sources say that you can only vote in one category and imply that the category is pre-determined, essentially that your vote will be in the category with the smaller electorate.

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
  • 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.