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Thames Moorings a warning


KenK

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37 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

This is a developing problem on the cut too. CRT are well behind the wave on this. Lots of stealth boats about these days.

Lots of people who owned Flybridge Cruisers on the Thames are ageing and selling them off cheaply ,have seen Quite a few used as Houseboats.The Waterways are becoming Housing whichever way you look at it.as you know I have lived aboard since '73 but will likely sell current boat and live elsewhere sometime in the coming year.

The Windsor leisure Moorings have Permanent Boats moored there and the Park is spoilt as a result. Dorchester Moorings have been wrecked so that Expensive Houses can be built on a Beauty spot.

it is occuring everywhere.

Edited by cereal tiller
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9 hours ago, erivers said:

In respect of the Environment Agency Thames mooring places, it's worth looking at what the primary legislation - the Thames Conservancy Act 1932 - has to say about charges for use of moorings:

 

"The Conservators may from time to time demand and receive in respect of vessels using any of the moorings in the Thames belonging to the Conservators the charges appointed by byelaws of the Conservators for the time being in force save that no charge shall be made for vessels tied up at night or for a reasonable time when not at work unless the traffic of the Thames is thereby impeded." 

 

There are no charges specified in current byelaws.

Mooring at night is free.

Mooring for a reasonable time is free.

 

The primary legislation is clear.  It is not for the EA, TVM or anyone else for that matter to make it up as they go along and demand unlawful charges and penalties.

I don't begrudge paying the EA fees for stopping on their moorings.

 

I am less enthusiastic paying third parties to allow me to do what I can do legitimately anyway, but if it keeps moorings free from overstayers then I will comply with the signs... I don't believe it does.

 

I think the EA would be better off operating their own website, telephone line, and do their own patrols and enforcement - which they still do anyway - if they feel that this is a step forward. Otherwise just go back to how it was, flawed but less big brother.

 

 

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so far in my trips up/down the Thames (7 weeks total / anywhere from brentford to lechlade) I have only paid to moor in one places (Broccas / Windsor) and have registered in no places for free mooring.

A lot of this is probably because we are looking to moor away from everything and as such avoid the mooring hotspots around towns.

 

met a total of two landowners, one had no issues with us (however long we wanted to stay) as long as we left everything tidy and didn't interfere with his electric fence, The other was only checking we weren't "le boat hirers" as they have had problems with them in the past.

 

I don't think that's too bad for 4 people (+ one loopy collie dog) and 2 45 foot boats

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9 hours ago, blackrose said:

Well most of us over a certain age can remember when the roads were much less congested. In principle it's no different on the waterways. We've got a growing population in this country. It was about 53m when I was a kid. We're at about 65m now. So everything has invariably got more crowded.

But there are not motorhomes parked for 2 weeks at a time before moving to the next street for 2 weeks slowly working their way round town

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1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:

But there are not motorhomes parked for 2 weeks at a time before moving to the next street for 2 weeks slowly working their way round town

 

You haven't been to Bristol recently then have you?

 

Or even a CRT car park...

 

 

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3 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

But there are not motorhomes parked for 2 weeks at a time before moving to the next street for 2 weeks slowly working their way round town

I suggest you have a look at certain parts of Bristol and other major cities, because it is happening.

 

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On 07/12/2018 at 08:00, john6767 said:

We spent Sept on the Thames and only payed to moor in Henley, Windsor and Lechlade.  I guess because it was out of the busy time in general there was space at the free moorings in most places except Richmond.

 

I had avoided the DE moorings on principle, but we did stop at Hampton Court.  I had no problem in registering on the parkonomy website and got an email with a receipt for £0.00 for our overnight stay.  So on the face of it as long as you have internet access it does seem to work, and perhaps because it is controlled there was plenty of space when we arrived at 5pm. 

We also stopped for one night at Hampton Court, near Kingston Bridge, back in August. I tried phoning, simply because I had read that the DE website didn't work, but only got through to voicemail.

 

I then tried the website a couple of times but the "book" button just kept taking me back to the page I started on. On the 3rd attempt I scrolled (much) further down the page and found another "book" (or it may have been "pay now") button. That one did work and I was able to book one night for free and got a receipt by email.

 

I wonder if all the people who say the website doesn't work have just tried the first "book" button they come to, unaware that there is another one further down the page that does work. Or at least it did for me back in August.

 

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1 minute ago, Lily Rose said:

We also stopped for one night at Hampton Court, near Kingston Bridge, back in August. I tried phoning, simply because I had read that the DE website didn't work, but only got through to voicemail.

 

I then tried the website a couple of times but the "book" button just kept taking me back to the page I started on. On the 3rd attempt I scrolled (much) further down the page and found another "book" (or it may have been "pay now") button. That one did work and I was able to book one night for free and got a receipt by email.

 

I wonder if all the people who say the website doesn't work have just tried the first "book" button they come to, unaware that there is another one further down the page that does work. Or at least it did for me back in August.

 

The Hampton Court Moorings were free for Decades till the CMer's Wrecked the Situation by abusing the time limits.

Giving Debit /Credit card details to a Company that Clamped Cars till it was outlawed is risky ,one day you might get a 'mistake' bill from them for £ 1-200 and you will have to fight your way out of it.

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3 minutes ago, cereal tiller said:

The Hampton Court Moorings were free for Decades till the CMer's Wrecked the Situation by abusing the time limits.

Giving Debit /Credit card details to a Company that Clamped Cars till it was outlawed is risky ,one day you might get a 'mistake' bill from them for £ 1-200 and you will have to fight your way out of it.

I didn't give credit card details, they were not requested for a free one night stay. I also have an email receipt from DR confirming my stay was free. I have not heard anything further from DE and have no reason to think I will. In the unlikely event that I do then I have a receipt from them for one free night and I also have a receipt from TVM for a mooring at one of the EA moorings for the next night which shows that I only stayed one night at the DE mooring.

 

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1 minute ago, Lily Rose said:

I didn't give credit card details, they were not requested for a free one night stay. I also have an email receipt from DR confirming my stay was free. I have not heard anything further from DE and have no reason to think I will. In the unlikely event that I do then I have a receipt from them for one free night and I also have a receipt from TVM for a mooring at one of the EA moorings for the next night which shows that I only stayed one night at the DE mooring.

 

The Hampton Court ones will likely ditch DE and the Park security will keep an Eye out for abusers ,the Tesco Reading DE situation will likely Fizzle as well as very little income will be Generated and Sign replacement costs will be a drain on their ill gotten gains.

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11 minutes ago, Lily Rose said:

We also stopped for one night at Hampton Court, near Kingston Bridge, back in August. I tried phoning, simply because I had read that the DE website didn't work, but only got through to voicemail.

 

I then tried the website a couple of times but the "book" button just kept taking me back to the page I started on. On the 3rd attempt I scrolled (much) further down the page and found another "book" (or it may have been "pay now") button. That one did work and I was able to book one night for free and got a receipt by email.

 

I wonder if all the people who say the website doesn't work have just tried the first "book" button they come to, unaware that there is another one further down the page that does work. Or at least it did for me back in August.

 

So after the 3rd attempt you got it to work...

 

As it happens I easily booked the free 24 hours but the option to extend my stay and pay online was not possible so I had to call. The resulting mess I posted about over the summer.

 

Sadly it is a sign of the times that owners of mooring sites now feel the need to use these operators.

 

 

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1 minute ago, Paringa said:

So after the 3rd attempt you got it to work...

 

As it happens I easily booked the free 24 hours but the option to extend my stay and pay online was not possible so I had to call. The resulting mess I posted about over the summer.

 

Sadly it is a sign of the times that owners of mooring sites now feel the need to use these operators.

 

 

It would have been the first attempt had I known about the 2nd button, which is why I mentioned it above.

 

I'm not defending DE, just pointing out that it is (or was) possible to get the website to work if you know about the 2nd button.

 

I hope DE do lose the contract. While I was there I offered my views to a park ranger and he said DE had been given one last chance to get it right and told me he also thought it would be better if it went back to the palace managing the moorings themselves.

 

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35 minutes ago, Lily Rose said:

We also stopped for one night at Hampton Court, near Kingston Bridge, back in August. I tried phoning, simply because I had read that the DE website didn't work, but only got through to voicemail.

 

I then tried the website a couple of times but the "book" button just kept taking me back to the page I started on. On the 3rd attempt I scrolled (much) further down the page and found another "book" (or it may have been "pay now") button. That one did work and I was able to book one night for free and got a receipt by email.

 

I wonder if all the people who say the website doesn't work have just tried the first "book" button they come to, unaware that there is another one further down the page that does work. Or at least it did for me back in August.

 

That sounds very much like deliberate entrapment to me, pretty much par for the course with "parking companies".

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6 minutes ago, Paringa said:

Sadly it is a sign of the times that owners of mooring sites now feel the need to use these operators. 

 

 

 

Probably persuaded by the up-front sweeteners paid by some of these operators to secure the contracts.

The owner of District Enforcement (based in Derbyshire) has even got himself appointed as a director of the River Thames Alliance Ltd. to wheedle more business.

 

Danylo Kurpil

 

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Sorry LR you are correct to mention the second button and i shouldn't have taken it as being directed at my post. It isn't exactly an intuitve site though is it...

7 minutes ago, Lily Rose said:

It would have been the first attempt had I known about the 2nd button, which is why I mentioned it above.

 

I'm not defending DE, just pointing out that it is (or was) possible to get the website to work if you know about the 2nd button.

 

I hope DE do lose the contract. While I was there I offered my views to a park ranger and he said DE had been given one last chance to get it right and told me he also thought it would be better if it went back to the palace managing the moorings themselves.

 

I couldn't agree more with your last paragraph.

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6 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

That sounds very much like deliberate entrapment to me, pretty much par for the course with "parking companies".

Agreed .they are not that fussed about Mooring Fees ,their main interest is Extorting Overstay Fees out of Boaters ,these people are Geared up for that....if the collected Fees were put into a Pot for Social Housing it would be better , but as we all know it is used to create even more Wealth for Greedy and Parasitic Company Directors.

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I don't know if "Parking Eye" are on the cut but they need watching.

 

On car parks, a camera records your entry and reg no.  When you leave you enter your reg in a machine and it tells you what to pay. As you leave the camera photographs your reg no again.  No problems?

 

This is the clever bit.  As you enter your reg no in the machine, predictive text fills in the rest for you on the screen as it identifies your number.  DON'T BE FOOLED!  Make sure you fill in the rest yourself even though the screen is already showing it!  When you get your receipt it will only show the digits YOU entered. 

 

If you haven't entered the full reg, a week later you will receive a penalty notice showing photos of your car saying no payment was made for this vehicle.  If you haven't kept your receipt you are stuffed.  Luckily, I spotted the short reg on my receipt and kept it just in case.

 

I presented the evidence to them and told them what happened.  They "graciously" waved the charge.  I complained at their sharp practice and told them I would have seen them in court before paying.

 

George

 

 

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7 minutes ago, furnessvale said:

If you haven't entered the full reg, a week later you will receive a penalty notice showing photos of your car saying no payment was made for this vehicle.  If you haven't kept your receipt you are stuffed.  Luckily, I spotted the short reg on my receipt and kept it just in case.

 

Blimey that's vicious. Thanks for the warning.

 

 

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On 07/12/2018 at 10:49, ditchcrawler said:

But there are not motorhomes parked for 2 weeks at a time before moving to the next street for 2 weeks slowly working their way round town

Errrm.

 

We have the odd one in Milton Keynes. Close inspection after dark show's it's not a local resident leaving it near his house (many houses are terraced and face direct to the street) but that they are occupied.

 

Favourite deterrent to date (as there seems to be no law against occupying a motorhome on the street) is when the local kids twig and think it's a great joke to rock it a few inches just before their bed time / on the way to school.

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38 minutes ago, 1st ade said:

 

We have the odd one in Milton Keynes. Close inspection after dark show's it's not a local resident leaving it near his house (many houses are terraced and face direct to the street) but that they are occupied.

 

Why is it that you can completely fill your garage with junk, so that your car has to occupy public space, parked on the road, but if you park you car in the garage and pile your junk up in the road, the council will soon be on to you?

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I fail to understand why people pay any attention to parking eye DE and  other Sharp practice car parking operators. Simply ignore them it’s not worth their while taking you to court and if they did you stand a good chance of winning. They have to prove you knew you had entered a contract with them. 

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13 hours ago, David Mack said:

 

Why is it that you can completely fill your garage with junk, so that your car has to occupy public space, parked on the road, but if you park you car in the garage and pile your junk up in the road, the council will soon be on to you? 

Funny you should say that - MK Planning are now routinely refusing Planning Permission to convert an off-road parking space into a garage on the basis that the last thing most people do with a garage is put a car in it! Off road parking to garage is seen as one less parking space.

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On 08/12/2018 at 19:59, jonathanA said:

I fail to understand why people pay any attention to parking eye DE and  other Sharp practice car parking operators. Simply ignore them it’s not worth their while taking you to court and if they did you stand a good chance of winning. They have to prove you knew you had entered a contract with them. 

carefully. parking eye are very litigant, ignore them at your peril.

 

out of the others some do and some don't. prefer to fight them as I've never lost a case yet and taking them to independent appeals costs them money 

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