Floater November 2014

8/10/2019 Floater November 2014

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The 14 Day Rule Boaters may have received twoletters from CRT recently, posteddirect to their boats. One, dated 8August 2014, states "The canals andrivers in London have seen a 36%rise in boat numbers over the lastfive years to 2,964 boats in March2014. In the past year alone, overallnumbers have increased by 14%,while numbers of continuouscruisers in East London has [sic]increased by 85%."

It goes on to say "To makesure everyone has a fair chance ofmooring it's important that boatersrespect the mooring requirements.

This month we're starting aninitiative of text messaging boatersin London when they've reachedthe maximum stay time on a 14-daytowpath mooring as a gentlereminder to move on."

CRT then explain they have"recently recruited a newenforcement supervisor and anadditional enforcement officer, and

are in the process of looking foranother enforcement officer."

The second letter, datedsimply August 2014, explains

changes in mooring times atVictoria Park, Broadway Market andLittle Venice, to be implementedfrom 1 September 2014.

At Victoria Park, the staytime on the "eastern half" will bereduced from 14 to 7 days; atBroadway Market there willapparently be "a new 7-day visitormooring located at the western endof Andrew's Road"; and at LittleVenice the "eastern half" will bereduced from 14 to 7 days.

These changes to mooringtimes ignore continuous cruisers'legal right to a fortnight a right

spelt out in the 8 August 2014letter. CRT make no mention ofplans to install mooring rings or newgrass verges along the longstretches of canal that could easilyaccommodate boats but currentlysit unoccupied.

The reduction in mooringtimes and the fact they are beingintroduced at the end of the

summer and in time for the winterseems to be designed to make live-aboard boaters' lives in Londonharder.

The 2014 General Meetingof the National BargeeTravellers Association(NBTA) will take place onSaturday 22nd November2014 at 1pm to 5pm at theQuaker Meeting House,150 Church Rd, WatfordWD17 4QB (near WatfordJunction Station). Allmembers are welcome.If you would like to cometo the General Meeting,

please book a place assoon as possible byemailing [email protected] or phoning0118 321 4128. We need tokeep the venue informedof the numbers so pleaselet us know in advance ifyou wish to attend. Furthertravel directions etc will besent out on booking.


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Privatisation with a Needy Smile: a CaRT HistoryThe Canal and River Trust haverecently made a further movetowards enclosure of the Londonwaterways, by attempting to

define place with the use ofboundaries and labels on maps.Intended only as guidance forcontinuous cruisers who may beunsure of how far they need tomove every 14 days in order tobe using their boats bona fide fornavigation. Many new boatersmay agree that this is a usefultool to help them stay on the

right side of CaRT, but the moreseasoned continuous cruiser mayargue the necessity. Within ashort while of living on the cutand moving around in ourfloating coffins, one gets a clearsense of locality. An etherealdefinition of place emergesnaturally as the sum of ourindividual experiences.

The definition of placeis highly controversial, and thereis a great deal of history aroundthis issue, particularly withregard to the British WaterwaysAct of 1995.

In the early 1990s BritishWaterways, the Canal and RiverTrusts predecessor before theCoalitions bonfire of thequangos, proposed a private billto parliament. The bill wasbrought about mainly to tacklesafety issues on the water byusing a legislative framework toensure higher standards. The billin its original form was poorlyput together and attracted muchoutrage from various stake-holders, none of which wereconsulted. Consequently therewere many petitions to membersof parliament over variouscontroversial clauses. It took 4

years for the bill to be debatedinto an acceptable form, asLabour MP Clare Short describesin a parliamentary debate on

May 17th

1993:

It is a great pity that theBill was introduced in suchan unacceptable form. Allsorts of fears andreasonable alarms werecreated. The Bill has beenmassively modified. BritishWaterways would have

been better advised toconsult more broadlybefore it introduced theBill.

Some of us may rememberBritish Waterways 2011 attemptto tackle congestion in London,where the proposals were soextreme (requiring movement ofvast distances every week) thateven if boaters could follow theunlawful rules, British Water-ways would fail spectacularly (asthey continue to do now) toenforce them. Ms Shorts lamentis one boaters are familiar with.

Many MPs believed thatthis ill-considered bill was athinly veiled ruse for theprivatisation of the waterways.Heres Ms Short again, from thesame debate:

Many people areconcerned about thedanger that theGovernment may privatiseBritish Waterways. Ilistened carefully to whatthe Minister said. He saidthat the Government haveno plans so to do. Before

the election, the Govern-ment told us that they hadno plans to increase valueadded tax, but we know

what has happened inrelation to domestic fuel.We know that theGovernment are planningto privatise the forests andrailways in Britain, so I amsorry to say that I am alittle suspicious about whatthe Minister said. Will hegive us an absolute

commitment that in thelifetime of this Governmentthere will be no movewhatever to privatise any

part of British Water-ways?

There was a lengthy response bya Mr Baldry to reassure theHonourable Lady. Ms Short wasnot alone in her fears though, asDavid Hinchliffe Labour Memberof Parliament for Wakefield alsohad words to say on the matter.From the same debate on May17 th , 1993:

Despite the Minister'scategorical assurancetoday, I believe that

privatisation will be thenext step and that the Billis a thinly disguised pavingmeasure. I hope that I amwrong, but given theGovernment's record, andthe direction of almostevery measure that theyhave introduced, I see noreason to believe that

privatisation will not be theend result. I suspect that Ishall be proved right. It isclearly the Government'sintention to commercialise


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the BWB (BritishWaterways Board) even

further, to enable it to pullout even more from state

funding of the inlandwaterways system. Thatsaddens me, but it comes

as no surprise. Even moreworrying is the fact thatthe Government have nocoherent political strategy

for the use of our inlandwaterways, and theimmense potential offeredby our rivers and canals.

Most of these fears were barely

imagined tolls to access thetowpath, which seem awfullycute when compared to thetransformation of BritishWaterways into to the Canal andRiver Trust, i.e. privatisation witha needy smile.

There was also muchconcern about how the billwould negatively affect boatersin regard to moorings. In theearly draft of the bill, BritishWaterways wanted all craft tohave a mooring. Mr AndrewBennett, Labour MP for Dentonand Reddish sheds light on whythis stipulation was not includedin the final draft. From thesecond reading of the bill onJanuary 19th, 1994:

My second point concerns people with houseboats onthe canals and the

problems that exist, particularly for people onlow incomes. There is asubstantial differencebetween people in thesouth of England, whogenerally have a

reasonable income, and people who live on canalsin the north and are onextremely low incomes.They enjoy owning boatsand travelling around thecanals more slowly than

people having a fortnight'sholiday and wanting totravel a substantialdistance.

Those people like to travel for a few months aroundthe canal network and thenstop and find employment

for a few months. They feel

under pressure because ofthe sensible concerns aboutsafety. I hope that whenthe Committee considersthe issue we will be assuredthat people on low incomeswill not be penalised if theydo not have permanentmoorings, and that if they

progress around the canalsystem and do not need a

permanent mooring theywill not be in difficulty.

That particular concern MrBennett aired is what shouldconcern us boaters in thepresent day. The vagueness ofthe legislation that waseventually agreed upon for theBritish Waterways Act of 1995,was designed so with intention.It was left loose as aconcession to those who fearedthe worst for boaters who maynot have the means to comply,for whatever reasons they mighthave.

If we take a look at thecritical piece of legislation fromthe bill that is still active today,

one can see how vague therequirements are. From Section17 of the British Waterways Act:

the vessel to which theapplication relates will beused bona fide for

navigation throughout the period for which theconsent is valid withoutremaining continuously inany one place for morethan 14 days or suchlonger period as isreasonable in thecircumstances.

Those who use these maps thatthe Canal and River Trust havecreated should do so withextreme caution and in theabove context. Any materials ofguidance the Canal and RiverTrust publish are exactly that,guidance, and do not have anybasis in law. Boaters would dowell to remember that everyword, comma and full stop ofSection 17, that is so pertinent tothe continuous cruiser, has beengone over with a fine tooth comband then some.

It is no accident that wehave the law on our side.

Links to the debates:http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1993/may/17/british-

waterways-bill-lords-by-order

http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1994/jan/19/british-waterways-bill-lords

More information on the maps:http://kanda.boatingcommunity.org.uk/crt-places-maps-were-leaked/

http://kanda.boatingcommunity.org.uk/crt-publish-map-of-places/
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1993/may/17/british-waterways-bill-lords-by-orderhttp://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1993/may/17/british-waterways-bill-lords-by-orderhttp://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1993/may/17/british-waterways-bill-lords-by-orderhttp://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1993/may/17/british-waterways-bill-lords-by-orderhttp://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1994/jan/19/british-waterways-bill-lordshttp://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1994/jan/19/british-waterways-bill-lordshttp://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1994/jan/19/british-waterways-bill-lordshttp://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1994/jan/19/british-waterways-bill-lordshttp://kanda.boatingcommunity.org.uk/crt-places-maps-were-leaked/http://kanda.boatingcommunity.org.uk/crt-places-maps-were-leaked/http://kanda.boatingcommunity.org.uk/crt-places-maps-were-leaked/http://kanda.boatingcommunity.org.uk/crt-publish-map-of-places/http://kanda.boatingcommunity.org.uk/crt-publish-map-of-places/http://kanda.boatingcommunity.org.uk/crt-publish-map-of-places/http://kanda.boatingcommunity.org.uk/crt-publish-map-of-places/http://kanda.boatingcommunity.org.uk/crt-publish-map-of-places/http://kanda.boatingcommunity.org.uk/crt-places-maps-were-leaked/http://kanda.boatingcommunity.org.uk/crt-places-maps-were-leaked/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1994/jan/19/british-waterways-bill-lordshttp://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1994/jan/19/british-waterways-bill-lordshttp://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1994/jan/19/british-waterways-bill-lordshttp://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1993/may/17/british-waterways-bill-lords-by-orderhttp://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1993/may/17/british-waterways-bill-lords-by-orderhttp://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1993/may/17/british-waterways-bill-lords-by-order


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Floater November 2014

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