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Winter MoaningsFor Fourteen Days or Longer as may beReasonable

So, at 11.80 per meter per month, or

thereabouts, it is Reasonable for someone

with, say, a 21 meter boat and 1,250 to stay

put for 5 months or so. It is Reasonable,

therefore, to close great lengths of towpath

mooring to people who do not have, or are not

able to choose to pay, say, 11.80 per meter

per month.

It is only Reasonable, though, not generous or

well-thought through. The payment is

something like a protection racket pay now

and nothing is going to happen to your boat if

I come past with my Patrol Notices and my

little pencil in my pocket. You will pay per

meter per month not to be moved on.

A thought suggests itself to your Editor,

though say you are paying per meter per

month for but one month, on a pleasant

stretch of towpath above Stonebridge Lock,

say. You would have been able to moor here

for a fortnight, having just cruised up here

from Springfield, if it were not a Winter

Mooring, not signposted and marked Permit

Holders Only.

But you have paid for your Permit and have

moored your boat (odd, there seems to be

less space here than it said on the CaRTwebsite, after youd managed to find the

Winter Moorings page, looked at the nice

photograph and received your password

reminder, found your customer number, and

paid on your debit card).

Police and ThievesThey oughta be SCENT downAfter waiting, oh, so much waiting, for CaRT

to re-open the burgled Stonebridge Facilities

Centre, vandals have seen it padlocked

again. The Floater awaits further

developments with some unease.

The film they tried to banIts shorter than The Hobbit, less offensive

than The Passion of the Christ, and has

fewer songs than Les Miserables. CaRT tried

to ban it, but the Wiltshire County Council

sponsored Boaters Voices is available

online now!

http://truevisiontv.com/wiltshire-voices-boaters

In a month you move on. So, subtract the

allowable Fourteen Days, and assume it isFebruary: you have just paid 11.80 per

meter per fortnight. Reasonable?

Surely what is Reasonable, as concerns a

Navigation Authority, as CaRT relentlessly

claim they are, is that which does not

unreasonably inhibit Navigation. If it is

Reasonable to close, say, 108 meters of

towpath at Enfield Lock for 5 months, which

would undoubtedly inhibit Navigation, if

there were Navigation to be done - so it isReasonable to assume there isnt - then is it

not equally Reasonable to allow those

without 1,250 pounds to see out the

Winter months on a mooring of their choice?

The

Editor

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Inlanders With Attitude******************************

Most Executives of BW/CRT think

that IWA is a boating organisation

which of course it is not. Given that

these people have been in their

posts and dealing with IWA for some

time it is surprising that they still

don't seem to have taken this on

board. If they cannot understand this

when it's been made clear to them

so many times over, then what hope

is there that staff will change their

views either?*****************************

Inland Waterways Association trustee

Vaughan Welch writing in Navigation,

apparently some variety of Boaters

newsletter. The Floater only wishes his

contributors were so outspoken and free

with their views, however inconvenient.

A Spectre is Haunting the WaterwaysThe London BoatersGroup, so the Floater has heard, have consensuallyappointed a boater to draft a Statement which, in response to the

provocations of an alphabet of acronyms, is intended to draw a series

of red lines in the sand, to mix metaphors, and to offer fig-leaves to

embarrassed bureaucrats. Final details are scarce, but the Floater

believes the Statement may cover some or all of the following:

That London Boaters Group reject any proposal of Local MooringPermits, as the License already paid for by boaters is all the permitanyone should need. The hope that this policy will both raise revenuefor the Trust and drive down the number of eligible boaters to zero

through their withdrawal to terrestrial accommodation, emigration or

death is neither necessary nor likely to prove effective. London Boaters

believe rather that the year-round presence of boaters in London and

throughout the country benefits the waterways.

That Community Moorings, as understood by London Boaters, are ameans of developing offline moorings as a community run project. They

should not encroach upon towpath mooring, which will remain open to

all boaters for the 14 day period, or longer, as specified by Law.

That although London Boaters welcome the introduction of WinterMooring Permits in the place of towpath closures, their proposal is thatthe Trust relaxes enforcement through the winter, when waterways use

is lower, and focus their resources instead on keeping a steady turnover

of boats on the more popular mooring sites throughout the summer,

applying only measures in keeping with the word and the spirit of

existing legislation and in co-operation with other waterways users.

That current discussion of Non-Compliant Continuous Cruising,Capacity,Overcrowding and Honeypot Sites, and consequent attemptsat managing life on the waterways through restrictions, permissions

and enforcement are and will remain ill-informed and ineffective until

academic qualitative and quantitative research is conducted.

That only when the responsibilities of the Canal and River Trust to carryout canal, lock and towpath maintenance are given their due attention,

and are sufficiently financed, will the full potential of the waterways toprovide homes, workplaces, and an attractive and sustainable

environment for all users be properly measured or understood.

London Boaters Group appear to believe that priority should be given tothe provision of services and security on the towpath for all waterways

users, over and above the current focus on restrictions, permissions

and enforcement, and that this will surely result in an improved

experience of the canals and rivers for all and the preservation of a

unique and valuable way of life.

Amen, etc.

The

Editor

Who Killed Cock Robin?Once his jolly red breastand familiar trillingsong thrilled visitors to the waterways. For

ten years he sang of a vibrant, largely self-

sufficient waterway network. Was the

bright young bird defending his territory,

trying to attract a mate, or just singing a

meaningless trill for joy of living?

His many abandoned nests now rest in the

ivy that hangs from the scaffold of boarded-

up public houses, they reflect in the glass

fronts of buildings that back onto the

canals. It is thought that no nest-egg

resulted from these speculative tangles of

twig and moss.

It is for his song, though, and the cocky

manner in which he strutted in his prime

that he will be most fondly remembered. I

am, he would trill, worth 250,000 per

annum, worth 250,000 per annum, worth

250,000 per annum