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Dispute at Pillings


andy the hammer

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If I recall correctly, BW's New Marina Unit estimated that some 500 online moorers would chose to move into marinas.

 

They thought cost was the major factor preventing more doing so ..........

 

And we all know how accurate BW's NMU predictions were!

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We choose to keep our boat in a marina for a variety of reasons the main one being facilities (by this I mean in house workshops , blacking etc) as well as location. If you are not residential then there is a pretty good choice of marinas now compared with 10 years ago. Whether the marina has a NAA or not is not part of the decision process. Several of the more recent marinas that pay the NAA look pretty good. Yelvertoft not a million miles away looks ok - no public areas that would appeal to me. The new marina that has just started being built at Kilworth nearby must feel it can attract boaters including costs of NAA.

 

If Pillings overheads are such that it's not viable, it's a hard truth but unfortunately boaters will need to move to one that can, BWML may also need to close unprofitable marinas why not?

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Sawley currently has one in three berths empty. I think their business plan is the same as Pillings -

 

 

 

Don't forget cost as a factor here... Sawley charge over 80%/yr more than some other Marinas in the area. Couple that with an apparent lack of service (I've not moored there, so can't comment personally, but enough searching on here reveals quite a few criticisms in this area), potential to flood and its no wonder its not full....

 

Pillings charged less, but is also on a flood-prone stretch (so you can't get your boat out and about).. Again I'll not comment on customer service, as I've not moored there...

 

On the other hand, there is the smaller, Chapel Farm Marina, not 10 mins from Sawley, which has a 7 year waiting list. Why? It is priced sensibly, offers what boaters want (water, safe mooring, electric) but with no frills, and has a friendly couple managing it.. Its not rocket science!.. Similarly, Shardlow marina is always pretty full - certainly well over the 77% "average" for the area..

 

Now we have North Kilby being dug, and Redhill with a bid for a 553 space marina, and Mercia slowly but surely expanding - and all the time CRT increasing the online mooring fees through the roof in the area to get boaters into the marinas. (A recent mooring at Sawley on the towpath went for more than a full-use berth in Mercia or Sawley). Willington and Beeston has seen similar large costs for online moorings.

 

I have no sympathy with PL, but it has to be said, there are too many marinas for the amount of boats in the area! This should lead to some sort of price-war, but instead, as BMWL own Sawley, it seems it just means CRT pushes the price of online mooring up instead to try and fill it.. Meanwhile Castle Marina and Mercia go for the expensive end of the market, and Redhill and Shardlow cater for those who can't afford £300 a month for their mooring..

 

Pillings Lock Marina really should have a nice space in the middle ground, if only it could sort itself out. If I were Mr Steadman, I would headhunt a good marina manager and look to the longer term. They need to keep mooring costs sensible, and occupancy full... This means a maximum of £25/ft/yr.

 

If they want to offer me the job, gimme a call.. ;)

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Don't forget cost as a factor here... Sawley charge over 80%/yr more than some other Marinas in the area. Couple that with an apparent lack of service (I've not moored there, so can't comment personally, but enough searching on here reveals quite a few criticisms in this area), potential to flood and its no wonder its not full....

 

Pillings charged less, but is also on a flood-prone stretch (so you can't get your boat out and about).. Again I'll not comment on customer service, as I've not moored there...

 

On the other hand, there is the smaller, Chapel Farm Marina, not 10 mins from Sawley, which has a 7 year waiting list. Why? It is priced sensibly, offers what boaters want (water, safe mooring, electric) but with no frills, and has a friendly couple managing it.. Its not rocket science!.. Similarly, Shardlow marina is always pretty full - certainly well over the 77% "average" for the area..

 

Now we have North Kilby being dug, and Redhill with a bid for a 553 space marina, and Mercia slowly but surely expanding - and all the time CRT increasing the online mooring fees through the roof in the area to get boaters into the marinas. (A recent mooring at Sawley on the towpath went for more than a full-use berth in Mercia or Sawley). Willington and Beeston has seen similar large costs for online moorings.

 

I have no sympathy with PL, but it has to be said, there are too many marinas for the amount of boats in the area! This should lead to some sort of price-war, but instead, as BMWL own Sawley, it seems it just means CRT pushes the price of online mooring up instead to try and fill it.. Meanwhile Castle Marina and Mercia go for the expensive end of the market, and Redhill and Shardlow cater for those who can't afford £300 a month for their mooring..

 

Pillings Lock Marina really should have a nice space in the middle ground, if only it could sort itself out. If I were Mr Steadman, I would headhunt a good marina manager and look to the longer term. They need to keep mooring costs sensible, and occupancy full... This means a maximum of £25/ft/yr.

 

If they want to offer me the job, gimme a call.. wink.png

if your figure excludes VAT, then it could work, PLM has around 13000ft of mooring. x 25 =£325,000 per year.

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So you were never top of the class in maths then ?

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A

 

I've looked again, but maybe you didnt actually consider what I said

 

 

Cranfleet Towpath - L1 Moorings 8

Hazelford Lock - L1 Moorings 4
Newark Town - L1 moorings 3
Tamworth Road - L1 moorings 2
Lime Kilns - L1 Moorings 5
Smeeton Westerby Trans Moorings 1
Sutton Cheney Wharf - L1 Moorings 2
Market Bosworth - L1 Moorings 4

 

And it still looks like 8 LOCAL moorings (the ones at Cranfleet), I wouldnt consider Hazelford, Newark etc to be "local" or to have any direct impact on PLM

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Its only 12 miles (by water).

 

So did C&RT (BW) close the 30 moorings to support PLM or just close a 'random' 30 moorings somewhere on the sysytem that probably have a more beneficial effect (if any) on other marinas ?

Local is as subjective to define as unreasonable. At one location where I lived in Australia the local shops were 350km away.

 

But the point is BW/CRT removed 29 towpath moorings (and lost the revenue) when Pillings was linked to the network. Those boats had to go somewhere and it wasn't BW/CRT's responsibility to force them to go to Pillings. The marina management had to offer a service to attract them!

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I suspect, obviously no proof, but all the removed online moorings were vacant anyway, so no one moved anywhere.

 

That's a just plain silly comment. CRT are hardly going to cancel occupied moorings.

 

CRT would have auctioned them and found new tenants had they not removed them from the network.

 

 

MtB

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That's a just plain silly comment. CRT are hardly going to cancel occupied moorings.

 

CRT would have auctioned them and found new tenants had they not removed them from the network.

 

 

MtB

There were no auctions then just waiting lists. We had been on the list for Cranfleet and got a letter telling us that we had been removed due to the reduction in spaces for PL. We looked at PL but the opening was delayed.

 

At the time it was very difficult to find a mooring so we were pleased to get a place at Barton Turns. Our definition of local had to be modified a bit.

 

Paul

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I suspect, obviously no proof, but all the removed online moorings were vacant anyway, so no one moved anywhere.

 

My recollection is that the original proposal was that BW would remove towpath and offside online moorings in the vicinity of a new marina, and that this would include moorings in use. But they then realised that it would be difficult to turf people off their existing moorings, and offside landowners who had been letting moorings for years with BW's agreement would take a pretty dim view of suddenly having their income stream completely removed, just because a marin was opening nearby.

 

And so they ended up removing BW-controlled moorings as they became vacant. And thus the moorings removed are typically spread over a rather wider area than originally intended.

Edited by David Mack
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I suspect, obviously no proof, but all the removed online moorings were vacant anyway, so no one moved anywhere.

Which is as it should be. It would hardly be reasonable to turf somebody off their mooring.

 

They reduced the SUPPLY of online moorings as they came free which meant that by churn the number of occupied moorings decreased.

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I was told by a fellow moorer at my present location that in a pub yesterday evening (lol) that he was talking to two guys in seperate boats that the general opinion of the situation of PLM is that it is closing down on the 14th April and that they and others are scuttling around finding other marians to stay!

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