Category Archives: Article

Article, Campaigns, Events, Facts and Advice, Legal, News, Newsletter

Resisting CRT’s controversial Surcharge with a Licence Strike

May 13, 2024 nbtalondon Leave a comment

Stop The Surcharge Campaign members are organising ahead of a Licence Strike. They are asking anyone interested in striking to sign up to the Licence Strike Group – tinyurl.com/licencestrike. Strikers will refuse to pay CRT’s new class of licence fee in protest against an ever-increasing additional charge for boaters who do not want, or cannot afford or find a home mooring.

The strength of this protest action is it has real leverage – a real financial and administrational impact on CRT. The new ‘Continuous Cruiser’ fee is perceived within the community as an attempt to incrementally price itinerant boaters off the waterways. Once enough people sign up to the Licence Strike, if CRT doesn’t back down a strike will be called. A coordinated Licence Strike will have a significant impact on CRT, overloading their enforcement team and costing them dearly.

Early signs are strong. Leafleting and promotion has only begun and already more than 200 boaters have signed up. Strike organisers have indicated that the number of strikers are growing of their own accord:

“Boaters can see how divisive and unfair the Surcharge is and they want to strike – some are striking already. The intent is already there in the community – all we’ve had to do is facilitate it as a viable protest action. Our job is to make the strike effective and safe for boaters. There are legal protections we can incorporate. There is protection in numbers. Already more than 200 hundred boaters have signed up, and there’s an entire community behind them.”

“Boaters are being charged unfairly every time they renew a licence. CRT almost certainly aim to increase the surcharge beyond what they have stated so far and destroy our community, and boaters know this. The number of strikers will only grow. Once we have enough interest we will call a ballot and strike. CRT have left us with little choice – take action or they will end our community. We must take collective action to stop the ‘surcharge’. “

Stop the ‘surcharge’ by signing up to the License Strike Group – go to tinyurl.com/licencestrike and complete the signup form. There will be a full description of the strike action and a full ballot to members and boaters before any strike action is taken.

NBTA London needs your support to carry on our work. Please get in touch here if you would like to volunteer with us. Alternatively your donations are vital to us supporting boaters with their legal case work, campaign banners and other printed material as well as events. You can help us with your donations online here

Article, Campaigns, Housing, Newsletter

A history of the collective fight for our homes

May 13, 2024 nbtalondon Leave a comment

The fight to defend our homes is far from new. For as long as land and water are privatised and our right to live on those lands and waters are restricted by private, often for-profit landlordism, people have always fought for our right to live.

In UK’s modern history, we saw this over a century ago when in 1915 the women of Glasgow resisted increases in rent prices. They formed a women’s housing association and in May 1915 some 25,000 Glaswegians joined a rent strike that eventually pressured the government to pass the Rent Restriction Act.

Statue of 1915 Govan Rent Strike Organiser, Mary Barbour, in Glascow

Unfortunately, the rent controls were reversed and another major wave of rent strikes came in the 1930s, when the working classes of London, Birmingham, Huddersfield, Liverpool, Aberdeen, Sunderland, Oxford and Sheffield seized power into their own hands and took strike action, demanding rent reductions as well as overdue repairs. Some tenants fought against intimidation, evictions and violence from bailiffs and police for months. Rent controls were reintroduced with the outbreak of the Second World War, followed by the Rent Act of 1957.

But as the government began inflicting vicious austerity programmes and privatised public housing over the past few decades, the UK has further plunged into increasingly acute housing crises.

This may not be surprising to us, as many boaters may have chosen to live aboard because living on land simply became too expensive. But with much of our waterways remaining under the control of the Canal and River Trust who have unilateral power to set license fees, we are again seeing what happens when the cost to literally live in our homes become unbearable.

But if history tells us anything, it is that we the people have power. More recently, in 2022 we saw this in action with the #DontPay campaign where families across the country pledged to withhold paying unjustly high costs for energy, which contributed to the government’s decision to offer some – if still inadequate – controls and support for households.

While too many decisions impacting our lives are made by just a handful of individuals, we have the power to resist and push for change. Affordable living should be the bare minimum, and beyond that we must continue fighting towards a commons where we all have the voice and power over our homes, our lives and futures.

Article, Local issues, News, Newsletter

New Chargeable Moorings Across London

May 13, 2024 nbtalondon Leave a comment

The CRT announced in the Boaters Update 22/03/24 that they are introducing around 800 meters of new pre-bookable moorings across 6 sites in London this year. The new sites are Kings Cross, Camden, Victoria Park, Broadway Market, Kensal Green and Cowley North, which will be joining Islington, Little Venice and Paddington.

These moorings come at a premium of £25-£35 per night and bring the total mooring space at this price to approx 1,500 meters. 1,500 meters would fit around 95 single moored 50 foot boats. This is an attempt to displace boats from the capital, we have seen already that these chargeable moorings mostly sit empty, so there is no justification for making more unless it is indeed an attempt to move boats out of London.

The eco moorings at Kings Cross and Angel are now £35 per night, as of the 1st of April, new sites at Kings Cross and Camden are also now available to book online. The other new sites will be phased in throughout the year. 2024 is looking to be a bad year for boaters at the hands of the CRT, first the surcharge which -if left unchecked- will threaten our whole way of life, and now these chargeable moorings, which will have a direct and very tangible impact on boaters living in and around London in 2024 and beyond.

CRT are saying that it is less than 10% of London’s moorings that are now chargeable, but all except Cowley are in one 10 mile stretch of central London (to add to Little Venice and Paddington) which will make travelling across that stretch without paying increasingly difficult.

Article, News, Newsletter

We must continue to fight the Surcharge

May 13, 2024 nbtalondon Leave a comment

Last April Fool’s Day was the beginning of the Canal & River Trust (CRT) charging boats for not having a home mooring. However, this is no April Fool’s joke!

If this goes unchallenged, it will just be the beginning of CRT using the price of a licence to get rid of boats without home moorings. Each year, the price for boats without home moorings will go up more than for boats with a home mooring. In 2002 British Waterways (the predecessor to CRT) proposed to charge boats without home moorings 250% more than boats with moorings. If we let CRT get away with this, there is nothing to stop it from pricing us off the waterways. CRT has always wanted to get rid of our way of life and this could be the way it achieves its goal. We must not let CRT price us off the waterways.

Most boaters are against this differential licence pricing. CRT’s own survey showed that over 97% of boat owners without home moorings were against the charge and 60% of all boaters preferred options that didn’t charge people for not having a home mooring.

The NBTA, IWA, NABO and others have made efforts to explain to CRT that charging for not having a home mooring is discriminatory, unjustified and unwanted. This has not changed CRT’s mind. CRT will simply not be persuaded by words. Each time, CRT’s arguments are shown to have no substance, just more cut and paste nonsense. We must use the leverage we have at our disposal to show CRT that its best option is to stop this so-called ‘surcharge’ on boats without home moorings.

So what leverage do we have?

Fundamentally, we need to make it more desirable for CRT to stop the ‘surcharge’ than to continue with it. To make it less desirable, we need to hit CRT where it hurts; by undermining its public image and its income.

The best means we have at our disposal to damage CRT’s income is to carry out a licence strike. However, for a licence strike to have an impact, we need relatively large numbers. At the moment, we don’t have the numbers. That’s why it is so important to express your interest in making it happen by clicking this link and signing up: http://tinyurl.com/licencestrike

Other than finances, the other thing CRT holds in high esteem is its public image. The whole premise of CRT’s existence is based on its “charity doing charitable work” public image, and of course its donations are linked to how people view it. This is why it spends millions of pounds on PR events and social media etc*. Therefore, as long as CRT continues with its plan to charge boats for not having a home mooring, we will work tirelessly to undermine its public image. Most of us don’t want to be undermining CRT but as this is one of the best tactics for leverage we have, we must!

We ask that people who are opposed to this discriminatory licence fee increase, join us in leafleting against CRT at the very events and stalls where CRT are trying to improve its public image. Some of us have already had great success and amazing public support in such actions at CRT events. Until CRT backs down, let’s use our leverage, let’s attend its events and stalls and let the public know what CRT is really about!

By using these methods of active influence, together we can stop the discriminatory licence fee increase!

To be involved in the campaign, please email: stopboatlicencediscrimination@gmail.com

*An example of millions spent by CRT on its public image is the £8 million last year on what it calls ‘Community engagement and participation’. CRT’s last financial report states that this comprises ‘engagement and events, strategy and planning, marketing and media.’ See pages 57-58 of the Canal & River Trust Annual Report & Accounts
2022/2023.

Article, News, Newsletter

Mooring isn’t anti social

May 13, 2024 nbtalondon Leave a comment

Elmbridge Council on the Thames has announced that it has begun a Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPO) to fine boaters up to £400 for staying for more than 24hrs, and no return to the borough within 72 hours. The council claims that mooring for more than 24hrs is an anti-social behaviour in itself. The council has also stated that if they are successful, they will encourage other councils to follow suit.

Active NBTA members, with the help of the Community Law Partnership, have put in a legal challenge to the PSPO.

Our way of life isn’t an anti-social behaviour and shouldn’t be treated as such.

Article, Local issues, nbta london, News, Newsletter

CRT is losing the ‘safety zones’

May 12, 2024 nbtalondon Leave a comment

It’s been over two years since CRT decided to enforce ‘no mooring’ in areas of the ‘safety’ zones; their aim is to clear boats away from parts of the River Lea, yet boaters are continuing to resist. Boaters on mass are ignoring CRT’s ridiculous ‘no mooring’ sites. Thanks to collective boater action, the ‘safety zones’ have clearly failed. For more information about the safety zones: https://nbtalondon.co.uk/3049-2/

Article, Legal, News, Newsletter

CRT Makes Intentions for Travelling Boaters Clear with New Surcharge

February 21, 2024 nbtalondon Leave a comment

The latest power move from the CRT is the introduction of a 25% surcharge for boats without a home mooring, a devastating decision which unfairly targets our community of travelling boaters.

As some of us may remember, this is not the first time the CRT – or British Waterways before them – have attempted to implement what is essentially a punishment for living this lifestyle, each time giving a different reason for doing so. This time around, CRT stated that the reason for this surcharge is that they need more income and we use the waterways and the facilities more than those with home moorings, a bogus statement for which they have no evidence; it could even be argued that some holiday boaters travel a further distance than most itinerant boaters.

It seems somewhat hypocritical for the CRT to insist some of us to move more, then say it’s our use of the waterways that means we need to pay more. At the NBTA we believe the most honest reason behind these decisions was given in the 2000s by British Waterways, they said that there were too many boats without home moorings and this proposition of a surcharge would encourage people into moorings- which seems to us is what the CRT is attempting to do here too.

Their increased ‘no mooring’ zones, new chargeable moorings and now a surcharge points toward their deeply concerning intentions for our waterways. They claim they need the income from this surcharge, but it would generate less income per year than their two top earners take in a year. They claim this is about money yet they spend hundreds of thousands enforcing ‘safety zones’.

Before now no waterways authority has ever claimed that we should be charged more to generate income, we assume because it would generate an inconsequential amount, it is no different this time. The CRT is chronically mismanaged, they could generate other much more profitable streams of income if they wanted to. This is not about the money they might make from a surcharge, this is about the gentrification of our waterways, they want to physically restrict our moorings and eventually charge us out of our homes, we are undesirable and not profitable to them.

This decision fundamentally discriminates against our already marginal community. Similarly to the ‘safety’ zones, if we fight we can be a force to be reckoned with. This battle is larger than the ‘safety’ zones, please get involved.

Article, Legal, Local issues, News

Elmbridge council wants rid of boats

February 21, 2024 nbtalondon Leave a comment

Elmbridge Council on the Thames want to bring in a Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPO) to fine boaters up to £400 for staying for more than 24hrs.

The council was made to re-consult after NBTA amongst others pointed out that boaters weren’t able to fill in the consultation due to not being notified about the consultation.

EA enforcement boat moored at Elmbridge on the Thames

We as NBTA met with the council to discuss solutions to the issues they raised in the PSPO. At one point in the meeting the council reps admitted the issues they have weren’t the ones mentioned in the PSPO but the fact that boats moor there longer than 24hrs. We asked if there was a more reasonable time that the council would be happy with boats staying. They weren’t interested in engaging with this question.

The council has now concluded the consultation and has decided to go forward with PSPO. A boater is taking legal action against the PSPO.

Article, News, Newsletter

National Demo against the Surcharge in Birmingham

February 20, 2024 nbtalondon Leave a comment

On a crisp winter’s day in November, over one hundred boaters from across UK waterways descended on the Canal and River Trust’s Birmingham office. Boaters from all over, from Macclesfield canal, Birmingham canals, to Kennet and Avon canal, Monmouth and Brecon canal to River Lea and many more waterways unified to protest against CRT’s discriminatory licence fee surcharge. A few boats with banners joined us outside the office, which was really fantastic to see, and we were able to get the story into several press outlets too.

The demo was a great success and showed CRT that we will not stand by and allow them to threaten our way of life. Thank you to everyone who came or supported from afar!

Article, Local issues, nbta london, News, Newsletter

Chargeable, Bookable Moorings

November 30, 2023 nbtalondon Leave a comment

In 2016, prior to launching the London Mooring Strategy, which was published in 2018, CRT and NBTA-London had round-the-table discussions about CRT’s thoughts on “pre-bookable” moorings. NBTA made it explicitly clear that if there were any “pre-bookable” moorings to be created, then they should be on the offside, and that tow-path moorings should never be chargeable.

Instead, CRT proceeded to make use of any vacant offside space not yet used for mooring for “long term”, or “residential” moorings, rather than increasing mooring space for visitors who were willing to book ahead, often making deals with third parties who owned the offside land. Two such set of moorings is at Broadway Market on the Regent, which in particular impedes navigation in what was already a very busy part of the London network, whilst overlooking the opportunity to create “pre-bookable” moorings; the other being Matchmakers on the River Lea, where the installation of those moorings meant CRT with their ‘safety’ zones are trying to enforce a ‘no mooring’ site on the towpath.

Yet, this is taken from CRT’s website:

“It’s really important that navigation is maintained and that it’s not impeded by moored boats. The inner London waterways are very busy with many different types of boater: liveaboard, leisure, freight, and business craft as well as increasing numbers of unpowered craft. This measure is intended to ensure that there is clear navigation for everyone in these busy areas.”

Their policy for safe navigation goes into the ether, however when it comes to the possibility of monetising new moorings, such as those on the offside at Broadway Market on the Regent.

Broadway Market, Regents Canal. Pic by Flickr/@scratch_n_sniff

Seven years following CRT’s first discussions with NBTA, CRT have now taken away several “casual”, “visitor” or towpath moorings, making them “pre-bookable”, and furthermore, have started charging extra. Usually, a CRT licence includes the right to moor on any towpath without extra charge, but CRT are turning 1.1km of London’s regular towpath into new ‘Chargeable’ Moorings that would cost an additional £25 extra a day. CRT’s argument for doing so is to make it ‘fairer’ for past-time and full-time liveaboard boaters alike to have a chance of mooring up in popular parts of the canal network. When we checked the facts behind the manipulated CRT survey on how successful the Paddington Basin chargeable moorings are, a Freedom Of Information Request reveals that these moorings have only been used 25% of the time – the rest of the time they remained empty and unused.

The latest moorings to be eradicated from public, free-for-all use are in Little Venice and Paddington Basin, but this is just the beginning .

On reading the T&Cs for what CRT call “pre-bookable”, but are actually chargeable moorings, included in these T&Cs are “planned” eco moorings on the Regent at Kings Cross and on Sweetwater in the Olympic Park on the Lee Navigation, strongly implying that these eco moorings may also become chargeable. NBTA also infer from this that the existing eco moorings on the Regent at Angel may become chargeable too, not just “pre-bookable”.

Aside from being financially exclusive and therefore fundamentally unfair in the first place, the quantity of chargeable moorings is not proportionate to the needs of boat owners. Lots of these bookable, chargeable mooring spaces will either be paid for by boaters who can’t find public towpath mooring since CRT have reduced those spaces, or they will remain empty because people a) can’t afford them, and b) don’t want them. If they remain largely empty, this may then be a great excuse for CRT to turn them into private moorings – as was the case at Here East moorings on the River Lee.

CRT announce itinerant boat dwellers will pay higher licence fees than others

Just before this newsletter went to press, the Canal and River Trust (CRT) announced that it plans to charge boats without home moorings more than boats with home moorings.

The implications of this are devastating. CRT will now be able to use boat licence fees as a way of removing the travelling boat dweller community from the waterways. It is more important than ever that we join together as a united community to stop CRT in their tracks. We will be sending round a ballot to all members of the NBTA to ask for your input on what action we take next. If you are not already a member, please sign up now to contribute to this vital decision. We have also organised an online meeting to coordinate our fight back. Please join us on Monday 9th October at 7pm. The access details for the meeting can be found on page 3. We hope to see you all there.

National Bargee Travellers Association – London Branch

Category Archives: Article

Elmbridge council wants rid of boats

A volunteer organisation formed in 2009 campaigning and providing advice for itinerant boat dwellers on Britain’s inland and coastal waterways