Proposed Marina Onley

[Djuwenda]

the fact that the opposition to the marina is based directly on the competitions website is comical.

 

Its like something out of the archers on bbc4...

 

so 11 people out for the protest then?

[sueb]

Yes. Part of why I am concerned over the phasing out of a lot of online moorings.

If you live on a boat and can't get an online mooring and no marina can or will take liveabords, where is everyone supposed to go?

A fair amount of marinas really don't allow liveaboards, and actively police this. Other charge a 'ransom' premium on top of the mooring fee and still ask their residents to live under the radar and with no security of tenure (or whatever the correct term is). This is why I think the removal of online moorings is not a good thing, aside from the fact that lots of liveabords really don't want to live in a marina.

You haven't got any more security with an online mooring. BW/Cart may turn a blind eye but if you read the terms and conditions of your agreement I believe it states that most moorings are leisure only

[c c]

the fact that the opposition to the marina is based directly on the competitions website is comical.

 

Does anyone have a photo of what the countryside looked like before Braunston Marina and its surrounding housing development was dumped in it?

[Ally]

link thing

Link 'not found'

[Tuscan]

the fact that the opposition to the marina is based directly on the competitions website is comical.

 

Its like something out of the archers on bbc4...

 

so 11 people out for the protest then?

 

 

 

Yes. The vested interests of the principle protesters destroys any objectivity , this is just Branston Marna protecting their interests surely.

[CV32]

I emailed support for the application - mostly because I got so fed up with the constant stream of "letters to the editor eminating from a Mrs Trellis ofBraunston Marina", every time I opened a local newspaper or canal publication. Good healthy competition is always good for the customer.

 

totally agree - let the market dictate. They are prepared to invest a large amount of money into a commercial venture so they must be fairly sure of being able to fill those berths.

[MtB]

Good for you. They have held boaters to ransom for to long with some charging a none returnable fee to go on a waiting list etc. The more competition the better.

Have a Greeny.

 

Indeed. And Braunston's policy of turning the water supply to the pontoons OFF as soon as the weather turns a bit nippy in autumn then leaving it OFF for five months until spring is just plain perverse in my opinion. At Thames and Kennet it stays on all year around and they just pay a plumber to fix the occasional burst pipe out of the hundreds of thousands of pounds of moorings income they receive.

 

I suspect that if the developers of the new marina at Onley announced that their berths will have a water supply for 12 months of the year, most of the Braunston opposition will evaporate and all the Braunston liveaboards will migrate there in a flash.

[carlt]

Does anyone have a photo of what the countryside looked like before Braunston Marina and its surrounding housing development was dumped in it?

Actually Braunston Marina doesn't extend beyond the original boatyard and reservoirs. The small housing development is also within the original boatyard grounds so no meadowland has been carved up.

 

Whatever you may think of Tim (and we clash often so I can't exactly be regarded as a fan) he took on what was regarded as a dead duck (I attended the dispersal sale in the 80s where the general opinion was that the whole lot would be filled in and houses built on it) restored most of the original buildings and kept it as a working boatyard, rather than just a sterile hole in the ground like most of these modern marinas.

 

Tim is a net contributor to waterways heritage and has often acted in the interests of canal heritage to the detriment of his own.

[ditchcrawler]

I emailed support for the application - mostly because I got so fed up with the constant stream of "letters to the editor eminating from a Mrs Trellis ofBraunston Marina", every time I opened a local newspaper or canal publication. Good healthy competition is always good for the customer.

Even Narrowboat World has a posting in support

[Ally]

It wasn't just Braunston that were afraid of the competition.................

[boathunter]

I note from the anti-marina campaign that the main concern highlighted is the amount of traffic in the area already being very high, with water-shortage stoppages at local locks as boats access and leave the area.

 

Can anyone comment on this from first hand experience?

 

As a general approach to life I say live and let live, but with my imaginary NIMBY hat on, I have a mooring (though no boat yet) on the N. oxford canal in the Barby marina area and I wonder if all these local marinas are completed whether I'll be moving to the hard shoulder of a narrowboat super-highway traffic jam. Perhaps I'll end up being one of those grumpy chaps shaking my fist at passing boats when I'm aboard, though most likely if it's too much I'll simply find a mooring elsewhere. Whichever way, it would be handy to have some advance warning of what I may be letting myself in for.

Edited October 25, 2012 by boathunter

[carlt]

I wonder if all these local marinas are completed whether I'll be moving to the hard shoulder of a narrowboat super-highway traffic jam.

If CRT are continuing the BW policy of removing on-line moorings when a marina is built you could find yourself off the hard shoulder altogether and in the motorway service station with everyone else.

Edited October 25, 2012 by carlt

[MtB]

CRT/BW policy is to reduce the number of online moorings by 10% of the new capacity from new marinas, as I understand it. This means a gazillion new marina moorings will be needed before all CRT online moorings are withdrawn.

 

However, CRT are not the only landlords of on-line moorings. Plenty of farmers out there renting their water frontage to boaters too, so even when CRT have no on-line moorings, some will still be available.

 

In addition, as CRT continue to aggressively raise their on-line prices, and the surplus of marina moorings means marina prices tumble, prices will converge, and on-line moorers will migrate to marinas anyway.

[carlt]

CRT/BW policy is to reduce the number of online moorings by 10% of the new capacity from new marinas, as I understand it. This means a gazillion new marina moorings will be needed before all CRT online moorings are withdrawn.

Losing 50+ online moorings in that area is a significant proportion but, personally, I think it is irrelevant as is Tim's argument.

 

Meadowland is a very important wildlife habitat and big holes built to store boats is not an acceptable use of it.

 

There are plenty of places where marinas could be built that would enhance the immediate environment rather than destroy it.

[David Mack]

Actually Braunston Marina doesn't extend beyond the original boatyard and reservoirs. The small housing development is also within the original boatyard grounds so no meadowland has been carved up.

 

Mostly true, but isn't the bit that sticks out at the east end (here) an extension on greenfield land built in Tim C's time?

[boathunter]

If CRT are continuing the BW policy of removing on-line moorings when a marina is built you could find yourself off the hard shoulder altogether and in the motorway service station with everyone else.

Point taken, but luckily it's a private mooring opposite the towpath that's been in use for generations.

 

Any comments about the apparently full to breaking point situation? Do Braunston have a point? Just because he owns a marina in the area doesn't neccessarily make his arguement incorrect though it's odd that if it really is so busy he's also stating that he and other local marinas have spare capacity. Taken at face value it would seem he has gennuine concerns but not just for his business. I think I met him a few weeks ago and he could barely be bothered to look up from his paper and mumble at me, but hey-ho, perhaps I don't look posh enough to be a lucrative customer.

 

No axe to grind, just interested in something that may effect me.

Edited October 25, 2012 by boathunter

[Starcoaster]

The top basin of Braunston that comes up to almost alongside of bottom lock was newly constructed around ten years ago, ie, dug out of the ground. I don't know what the land usage was before, but I assume it was a field.

[Magic Potion]

Link 'not found'

 

Bugger, it works for me .... it's on the Braunston Marina website.

[Ray T]

Got this somewhere off the net. Shows Braunston Yard before any major development:

 

 

I believe the far pond? is where BW dumped a lot of its redundant boats at one time.

Edited October 25, 2012 by Ray T

[scrumpylurcher]

The third basin which backs up to UCC was purchased by Tim from the people who used to own the bottom lock shop and continue to farm a lot of the land on both sides of the canal. I believe it was smaller but in water and was linked to the pump house that UCC now occupy. I cant remeber the dates but I understand there were replacement electric pumps in that building before it was decommisioned.

[ditchcrawler]

In the 60s

 

http://www.francisfrith.com/braunston,northamptonshire/photos/the-marina-c1965_b778015/

http://www.francisfrith.com/braunston,northamptonshire/photos/the-canal-c1965_b778026/

[Starcoaster]

That large house in the background of the first picture has the same lady living in it now as was there in the year the picture was taken, as I understand it from what she's said about how long she's lived there.

[carlt]

The top basin of Braunston that comes up to almost alongside of bottom lock was newly constructed around ten years ago, ie, dug out of the ground. I don't know what the land usage was before, but I assume it was a field.

The reservoir went all the way to where it finishes now and the triangular extension was indeed dug out to accommodate about 13 more boats:

 

 

 

Not quite the same league as a 500+ marina really.

Edited October 25, 2012 by carlt

[scrumpylurcher]

 

 

 

 

 

Not quite the same league as a 500+ marina really.

AS Carl says there is nothing locally to compare with the proposals for Olney, which is bordering on being double the size of Braunston. Assuming it goes ahead I am prepared to gamble a small ammount that the promised shop and pub remain a pipe dream for many years to come. There is recent history of all sorts of fancy add ons at proposed marinas that dont actually appear. I think the local residents who are backing the application on the basis of pubs/shops/jobs etc maay well be disappointed.

[Djuwenda]

I am backing it on the strength that I dont see any valid reasons to object to it

 

Meadowland is a natural habitat, of course, but its not rare, there is plenty of it left all round and to a certain extent every little bit of grass is a natural habitat.

 

And its not exactly like we are alking about building a shopping centre is it?

 

The commercially motivated opposition to the marina, on the other hand, makes me want to actively support it... especially when said commercially motivated operators take to the media in the name of boaters to denounce congestions etc.

 

that really grates me!