Another eviction

[magnetman]

As I pointed out at the beginning of this thread the chap who was asked to leave poplar marina was selling boats moored in a BWML marina against their wishes, and hoping to acquire a higher sale price as the boats had transferable moorings.

 

I do think this sort of thing is bound to wind up the marina owners

 

I went on about this ad nauseum already so will stop now

[Bobbybass]

Just because you have 'rights', doesn't make it right.

[Allan(nb Albert)]

As I pointed out at the beginning of this thread the chap who was asked to leave poplar marina was selling boats moored in a BWML marina against their wishes, and hoping to acquire a higher sale price as the boats had transferable moorings.

 

I do think this sort of thing is bound to wind up the marina owners

 

I went on about this ad nauseum already so will stop now

Rod Taylor was given 28 days notice by BWML's MD, Derek Newton, because he had made a complaint (and also acted on the Waterways Ombudsmans advice and taken CaRT to court).

 

The termination letter he was sent can be found here.

 

Absolutely nothing in the termination letter about breaching the terms and conditions of his mooring agreement. I understand he signed a new agreement with BWML in January.

 

The accusations of breach of terms and conditions appear to be a mechanism to rewrite the termination letter such that it was not irrevocable.

 

Derek Newton resigned shortly after.

 

His resignation has to be seen in the context of CaRT's Trustees expressing concern regarding BWML's financial, operational and reputational impact on its parent last November.

 

[MyLady]

carlt was right to cite Peter Rachman (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Rachman) much of what he did was legal (though much wasn't)...

 

"Thou shalt not kill; but needst not strive Officiously to keep alive:" (see “The Latest Decalogue,” The Poems of Arthur Hugh Clough at http://www.bartleby.com/73/1805.html)

 

As far as I see it, this is a conflict between what is moral and what is legal, an issue on which Rod for many years has been on the side of morality. I knew well some 40 years ago, first when he moved his hand loom weaving business to Howarth - when he had to rename it from 'Bronte Tapestries' to something else to meet Howarth rules for using the name 'Bronte" - and later after his marriage broke up, relatively amicably, and he set up a canal-ware business, as his crew up the Avon and Severn estuary.

 

I can appreciate that market forces enable BWML to charge massive increases in fees, but that doesn't make them moral - see the reference to Rachmanism (subsequently made illegal by the 1965 Rent Act) and Hugh Clough's satirical poem.

 

I can easily believe that Rod would be willing to stand as a test case, and the Ombudsman and small case court results seem to be on technicalities - not within each authorities competence to rule. The 4th and 5th paragraphs of his eviction letter seem to me to depend on the letter rather than the spirit of the rulings (as far as I've been able to research them).

 

Any suggestion that he has been 'aggressive' should be taken in the context of "an elderly man and woman, who both have cancer" (see http://www.narrowboatworld.com/index.php/news-flash/6634-more-vulnerable-evictions) versus an organisation that found it worthwhile to incur "substantial legal costs" (see again their letter - http://wylam.boatersrights.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/0984_001termination-letter.pdf).

 

Now please don't misunderstand me, I'm not into CaRT bashing - in my short career as a boater I've always found CaRT staff to try to be as helpful as they possibly could - but I think that this case seems to illustrate 'the unacceptable face of capitalism': BWLM, like Peter Rachman, seem to have pushed for all the market will stand. In my view, that's not illegal but is immoral.

 

"The laborer is worthy of his hire" but in the terms laid down for the Monopolies and Mergers Commission (now the Competition Commission) a market share of 25% merits regulation. This case seems to me to be monopoly power.

 

All the best to all boaters,

 

Roger

Edited March 25, 2014 by MyLady