Silent too long?

Sorry about the silence here but had some family stuff to deal with, but all has turned out reasonably well considering. Back here with more thoughts soon no doubt.

Mooring customers still being screwed by Canal and River Trust

I've been tracking the state of play with vacancies at Engineer's Wharf for several years now and latest observations from the CRT moorings Auctions site re-confirm that CRT are simply lying to us when they claim that prices of directly managed moorings are market led.

As of today there are yet again two vacancies advertised, but the reserve prices have been increased since I last reported vacancies in Winter 2013. The current vacancies have reserve prices of £5292 pa. Agreed this is a modest increase of just over 1% compared to the reserve prices I reported in Sept 2012 but the facts are the same: The berths are it seems unpopular and/or have high turnover, but instead of lowering prices and getting them in use, the price goes up. 

A Sick Joke?

My last post on April 01 yielded a number of reactions which let's be honest was exactly what I intended!

The vast majority of people realised at once  it was an April fool because like me they know that the current CRT set up doesn't really give much of a damn about boating customers. It is noteworthy that so many people found the idea of CRT offering boaters a better deal and addressing long held concerns about facilities and moorings to be unbelievable. The thought that CRT might actually invest money in facilities for boaters as opposed to more and more hare brained enforcement schemes is clearly something many boaters found to be highly unlikely.

A few conspiracy theorists linked my post to the announcement of Sally Ash's retirement. I must say I did not have foreknowledge of that news, because in the past Sally has said she was going to go on and on and on. However the fact a few people thought my post about investment in facilities was linked to Sally's departure speaks volumes.

NABO's posting on Sally's imminent retirement still has me smiling!

A New Deal for boaters from the Canal and River Trust

Canal and River Trust has today announced a revolutionary new plan to re-invigorate private boating on the Inland Waterways of England and Wales.

A spokesperson for the Trust was heard to say: 

"For many years British Waterways neglected aspects of their the core responsibilities as a navigation authority and failed to give sufficient attention to it's most important group of fee paying customers. It is time that we improved on that. Private boatowners should be our most loyal supporters and our most valued customers and we have a duty of care towards them. 

"Recent policies of emphasising enforcement, restrictions and sanctions against boaters have been shown to be be counterproductive and a poor use of resources. We recognise that investing in better and more diverse physical facilities for all boaters is a more sustainable way to proceed in the future."

RIP Roving Mooring Permits?

I'm not sure how I should react to the news that CRT have backed off issuing Roving Mooring Permits. (The CRT press release is here as a Word .Docx file).

As a former NABO Council member I suppose I should at least be slightly pleased that our scepticism about the legality of the proposal has proved valid.

However I'm more relieved that unsuspecting boaters are now not going to be duped into parting with money for what I have personally highlighted as a highly dubious if not outright corrupt proposal.

The hand that bites you...

Not a very happy start to the year for CRT; huge amounts of coverage around CRT's treatment of what for want of a better phrase we seem to be calling vulnerable boaters. This followed the Bargee Travellers breaking the story with three cases and the associated petition.

While we do not know the whole story in each individual case (and indeed it is difficult for CRT to defend their actions without breaching data protection and confidentiality rules), for me there are just too many of these stories knocking about over the years. Having worked with and represented boaters to BW/CRT over many years and based on the poor standards of customer service I get, I find these reports wholly believable.

CRT of course have subsequently admitted that they do not have any written policies about when to take vulnerable boaters to court. Not then a huge surprise then.

Should you bother volunteering with Canal and River Trust?

The whole question of volunteering with CRT is a difficult one for me, and I suspect for many others. What I do know is that CRT urgently have to up their game on this front by several orders of magnitude.

There is no doubt that CRT does not have the resources to maintain the waterways as a whole and are constantly fire fighting. Many jobs especially when it comes to litter and grounds maintenance, that in the past were done by staff or contractors, now only happen when volunteers are available. CRT realise this but are they going about engaging with volunteers effectively? Some examples of my personal frustrations:

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Well done Pam on Narrowboatworld for your excellent dissection of CRT's statement published in defence of the Judicial review action being pursued by Nick Brown; the piece highlights Nigel Johnson's statement to the Court which seems to unambiguosly confirm that there is a 'good boater/bad boater' mentality ingrained within CRT thinking.

The ugly is of course the consequences of this attitude; his express scapegoating of continuous cruisers. (The timing of the statement also confirms that nothing whatsoever has changed in this respect since the transfer from British Waterways.)

Others have commented on the 'braveness' of publishing these views at this time. Apart from being blatantly provocative, the position that Continuous Cruisers are the main problem is also largely unsubstantiated by the evidence.