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How can boaters become CRT's priority customer?


bassplayer

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By getting very loud, protests, pestering (emails etc), lobbying the trustees, the list is endless.

More likely by lobbying MPs CRT like BW is a closed shop we need to become members with a say in the running of the things .

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Seeing as the new Head of Boating is not long in post, do you think its prudent to wait and see how he fares?

I'm all for giving people a chance. Is he/she a boater?

 

Edited to say that it appears Mike Grimes has no boating background.

Edited by bassplayer
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The new head of boating seems to be making the right noises in his article in the boater's update. Let's hope the boaters bother to make an input and that CRT listen.

 

A bit of BOV’er

Continuing with his monthly contribution, Mike Grimes, head of boating at the Trust, is encouraging boaters to give us their views:

25195.jpg"Before getting on to my main topic I want to thank all those helping us with the mammoth clean up and repair of the flood damaged waterways in the north. I visited the area last week and came away with two contrasting feelings.

”Firstly, I felt miserable after seeing the state the flooding left some of our most picturesque canals and rivers in. But that feeling was trumped by one of inspiration. Throughout the day I talked to some boaters and boating business owners who had been helping, pretty much since day one, by volunteering their time and skills to help with the work.

“Their passion and enthusiasm, along with that of the local community, left me feeling much more positive than I had on my arrival.

“So, as the title says, I wanted to talk about a bit of BOV’er. Before starting I should explain that BOV actually stands for Boat Owners’ Views. And that’s exactly what we want.

“In the next couple of weeks we’ll be emailing, or posting if you haven’t given us an email address, a survey out to around a third of boat licence holders. It’s a relatively wide ranging survey asking questions about everything from customer service through to your boating habits.

“It’s been a couple of years since the last one but, from this point on, it will be repeated each year with the aim of having contacted the majority of boaters in each three-year cycle.

“One thing is obvious – as a collective you’re a passionate and knowledgeable bunch and it’s really important that we listen to what you think we’re doing well, so we can make sure it’s done all around the network. On the flip side, it’s just as important to hear what you think we should be improving on – it’ll help us prioritise our work.

“You really are our eyes and ears on the towpaths – an ever present community that will notice things that we don’t so your lived experience should inform our work. If we do get in touch with you and ask for your thoughts please do take the time to complete the survey’

“We’ll be publishing a summary of the results in May and I hope that they will give us an insight into both the general and the more localised subjects that matter most to you.”

Mike

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by making sure the right boaters are on the crt council we could do it easy if we could agree on it

Nope. That's a complete and utter waste of time.

Seeing as the new Head of Boating is not long in post, do you think its prudent to wait and see how he fares?

Nope. That's just a lazy answer.

We should be constantly on his back. Sitting back and simply being "prudent" shows nothing but perhaps apathy.

  • Greenie 2
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I think your starting point is to all start singing from the same hymn sheet.

 

I don't think I know of a more disparate group. Until then I doubt CRT will start to take you any more seriously.

 

(This is an observation not a criticism).

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it’s really important that we listen to what you think we’re doing well, so we can make sure it’s done all around the network. On the flip side, it’s just as important to hear what you think we should be improving on – it’ll help us prioritise our work.

 

Listen: to hear something with thoughtful attention

 

Hear: to listen to with attention

 

it’ll help us prioritise our work: but not necessarily where you think it should be

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I completely agree with #12.

 

Different sub-groups of boaters seem to want different things.

 

Even where there are interests which ought to unite the various groups, they/we don't seem able to speak with one voice to CRT or anyone else, preferring to argue that their special concerns of beit as a continuous cruiser or a long term marina moorer outweigh anything else.

 

The better question to ask would be; "What does it take to unite boaters, so that their views become a priority for CRT?"

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I'm all for giving people a chance. Is he/she a boater?

 

Edited to say that it appears Mike Grimes has no boating background.

 

I think it is fair to say that none of the many management appointments that CRT have made from outside the Trust have any relevant experience of inland boating, or indeed the operation and running of the canal system.

 

I haven't revisited Mike Grimes' credentials, but many of the appointments are from the entertainments / tourist attractions side of things, which is fairly firmly where it is heading - you don't have to look very hard to work that one out! There is also now only one director that has been in situ longer than Richard Parry, with most of the remainder being completely new blood, with less that a year with CRT.

 

I actually think that getting adequate focus on boats and boating issues, particularly navigation and maintenance is going to be an increasingly difficult task. To make things worse it would appear that most of the boating associations have now abandoned any attempt to work co-operatively together towards any kind of compromises that might be for the benefit of boat owners generally, irrespective of their "status". Far too much time now seems to be expended on point scoring, rather than trying to jointly tackle CRT on the issues that matter most.

 

Not that an individual will generally do any better either, in my recent experience. I have now been repeatedly pressuring CRT for three weeks in a bid to get answered questions about the latest South East visitor moorings consultation, and have been consistently unable to extract any reply from them at all.

 

Increasingly I think we should just get on and try and pack in all the boating we can, whilst it is still possible, accepting that we can't fix an organisation that seems to be hell bent on going in any direction but the one we know is required. I become increasingly concerned that within a decade the idea of trying to travel from London to Leeds (or similar) will not be something that may still be possible, or at least without it becoming a challenge in innovative work-arounds. Anybody who remembers the 1970s and 1980s when major tunnels on through routes were impassable for many years at a time may realise that I'm not just being melodramatic on this occasion.

Edited by alan_fincher
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There's discussions ongoing in some quarters about effective resistance to evictions by police/CRT for the purpose of a "rent" strike type of protest. Very high risk for those who's boats are involved but it would make the current CRT approach hugely expensive.

Edited by Sabcat
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As one who is about to leave the canals and waterways I can only say well said MJG and alan_fincher. The way boaters just seem to want to score one upmanships against each other means that nothing will get done by boaters for boaters and C&RT will continue on it's present path of pandering to cyclists, walkers and fishermen oh and cutting hedges although I haven't seen them do much of that up this way.

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I actually think that getting adequate focus on boats and boating issues, particularly navigation and maintenance is going to be an increasingly difficult task. To make things worse it would appear that most of the boating associations have now abandoned any attempt to work co-operatively together towards any kind of compromises that might be for the benefit of boat owners generally, irrespective of their "status". Far too much time now seems to be expended on point scoring, rather than trying to jointly tackle CRT on the issues that matter most.

 

Not that an individual will generally do any better either, in my recent experience. I have now been repeatedly pressuring CRT for three weeks in a bid to get answered questions about the latest South East visitor moorings consultation, and have been consistently unable to extract any reply from them at all.

 

 

I feel this has to be said, and am sorry for being a little blunt, but given your constant badgering, and slating, of associations (that you seemingly are unprepared to get involved with), you have a bit of a cheek making such statements.

To be honest, I've seen you do absolutely nothing other than sound off on here about how you did this that and the other, yet you can't even organise the notes from your meetings in such a way, that they are placed on the internet for others to see. (as was the case recently).

 

So before you condemn others for at least making an effort, make sure your own house is in order first.

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Obviously it is CRT's responsibility to issue the notes from meetings I'm involved in, not mine personally - they quickly issued the ones I pointed out to them had not gone on the web-site.

The issue of visibility of meeting notes seems to be something that is not unique to partnership meetings though, doesn't it?

You for example used an FOIA request to gain information about meetings between NABO and CRT

Linky

Likewise NBTA have in the past used FOIA requests to see what you and NABO and other associations were up to.

Linky

 

If some of the associations feel they need to raise FOIA requests to find out what the others are up to, that suggests the relevant meeting notes were never freely in the public domain, for the benefit of all, (or if they were, they were not easy to find!).

If boaters want to present a united front to CRT, (so far as we are able!), then associations conducting business on private web-sites, or in closed Facebook groups does nothing to facilitate that, in my view.

  • Greenie 1
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As one who is about to leave the canals and waterways I can only say well said MJG and alan_fincher. The way boaters just seem to want to score one upmanships against each other means that nothing will get done by boaters for boaters and C&RT will continue on it's present path of pandering to cyclists, walkers and fishermen oh and cutting hedges although I haven't seen them do much of that up this way.

The trouble is, most of us don't want to score any points at all, either off each other or for / against CRT. Boating is a fairly individual hobby/lifestyle and so attracts individualistic people, who tend not to clump together to do stuff but exist on the anarchistic end of the spectrum. Most of us just want to go boating, and the majority of us are of an age when we can heave a sigh, accept that the system will just about outlast us, but that it can't possibly survive in its present state much longer.

ETA I could say the same is true for a lot of things in this country we used to value, and that the fact that hardly any of the people I know who are in their twenties are registered to vote, or if they are, can be bothered to do so, explains why. You can't leave it all to the old farts...

Edited by Arthur Marshall
  • Greenie 1
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Obviously it is CRT's responsibility to issue the notes from meetings I'm involved in, not mine personally - they quickly issued the ones I pointed out to them had not gone on the web-site.

 

The issue of visibility of meeting notes seems to be something that is not unique to partnership meetings though, doesn't it?

 

You for example used an FOIA request to gain information about meetings between NABO and CRT

 

Linky

 

Likewise NBTA have in the past used FOIA requests to see what you and NABO and other associations were up to.

 

Linky

 

If some of the associations feel they need to raise FOIA requests to find out what the others are up to, that suggests the relevant meeting notes were never freely in the public domain, for the benefit of all, (or if they were, they were not easy to find!).

 

If boaters want to present a united front to CRT, (so far as we are able!), then associations conducting business on private web-sites, or in closed Facebook groups does nothing to facilitate that, in my view.

The original intention of getting you into that subgroup was to give us a voice and ears. The fact that someone had to do an foi request for information of what you and that group discussed on November the 30th, is quite frankly ridiculous.

Unbelievable.

 

Just for the record, you were in the continuous cruiser fb page, and chose to leave of your own accord. So don't bother giving out that fluff Alan.

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