K+A complaints - another "perfect balanced sample"

I read with great amusement the latest posting on the Kennet and Avon Boaters website, "Truth will out". As neat an example of certain people in BW apparently manipulating information to create the result they want I have not seen in a long time. Another way of looking at the numbers is to point out that:

It seems that of the sixty three complaints about boaters that BW cited to justify their proposed mooring restrictions on the Western K+A, thirty of these were from one person!

What the local press thought of the BW Marsworth fiasco

I couldn't resist highlighting this report from a local paper (further to my previous rant on this subject).

Consultation or con - 'the perfect balanced sample'

The more paranoid among us believe this could in fact be a training video used for training BW staff to write public consultations - enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yhN1IDLQjo

Useful Woodburning Guide

Sitting indoors nursing a cold and surfing idly, I found old link not working from AIE (Arboricultural Information Exchange) on one of the canal forums - a useful guide to which timber to burn.

The main thing I have found is getting your wood as dry as you can seems to makes a huge difference - more and cleaner.

Marmsworth - Another consultation failure at British Waterways

As reported in Narrowboatworld and elsewhere, another outright failure by British Waterways to consult adequately has ended in farce.

Major consultation on national Waterways Policy

Heads up - another consultation!

Consultation Con - the latest moves

I've also been silent on this front for a little while. More specifically I've been suffering from "consultation fatigue" at the hands of BW. BW consultations on boating issues are like buses - nothing for ages and then loads all at once!

I highlighted the moorings consultation a while back. True to the spirit of that posting BW are in fact going ahead with setting up local consultations about implementing the local moorings strategies before the complete the consultation on whether local mooring strategies should go ahead in the first place closes !? This second consultation concludes a week or so before the national consultation. If this is not an example of prejudging the results of the first consultation I don't know what is.

NABO’s legal complaint - a personal view

I’ve been wondering what to post about this one for some time. It’s been taking a lot of my attention over the last while. Sorry - this is quite a long rant!?

That NABO has engaged a legal complaint about a number of concerns over how British Waterways is approaching some enforcement issues over moorings has been widely reported in the waterways press, waterways websites, forums and so on.

The more most observant among you, if you have trawled through the wide range of coverage and discussion, especially in chat rooms and forums, may have noticed that precious little of what has and is being written has actually come from NABO!