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CRT UP TO THEIR OLD TRICKS AGAIN

July 4, 2023 stopboatlicencediscrimination 2 Comments

So this year CRT pulled out of their bag of tricks, one of the favourite waterways authorities questions: ‘Should people without a home mooring pay more than those with?’ And without much warning they actioned this into their new surprise survey. It’s not the first time CRT or their predecessor British Waterways (BW) brought this question out. Within the last 21 years they have bought it out four times.

In the Bill that became the British Waterways Act 1995, BW wanted it to be a criminal offence to keep a boat on BW waterways without a home mooring. However, with an almighty pushback we instead got an Act which gave us the legal right to exist on BW waterways. This was quite a setback for BW, it had for the 20-30 previous years been making life on the water harder. Now it was law that they had to licence our boats as long as we followed three basic criteria. Therefore, BW and following them CRT had to come up with some inventive ideas to deal with their persistent pest – the travelling boater.

They tried a few different tactics in their attempts to eliminate our community from the waterways, from reducing mooring stay times to taking away moorable banks to outlandish enforcement strategies such as 2003’s plan to make our travelling boaters travel 120 different lock-miles every 3 months without turning back. Some plans were beaten back, others weren’t. So far each time BW and CRT have proposed that boats without home moorings should pay more; it has been successfully resisted.

In early 2002, BW stated that they believed the licensing system was “felt by many to be unduly complicated”, in a document entitled ‘A fresh look at BWs craft licensing structure:

Consultation Paper for Boaters May 2002′. They proposed a more complicated tiered licensing system where they would increase the licence fee for a boat without a home mooring to 2.5 times that of the normal licence fee. In their document they even argued, ‘there is a compelling argument for a ‘pay as you go’ system’.

Later that year, after doing a bit a consultation they published ‘A fresh look at BW’s craft licensing structure: Consultation update’. Here BW put boats without home moorings into four categories: genuine continuous cruisers, bridge-hoppers or short range cruisers, static “live aboard” boats and boats awaiting a mooring. Just for clarification, BW considered bridge-hoppers or short range cruisers were people who “moved less than 50 km in any three month period”. They were concerned that if they charged boats without home moorings more then they would harm the “genuine continuous cruisers” as well as the other types of categories they’d coined without home moorings. Therefore, they proposed that boats without home moorings who moved within a range in one region “pay a district mooring fee equivalent to the lowest priced BW permanent mooring in the area where your craft is normally kept or used”. Under pressure, this idea was also discarded.

In a 2005 document entitled ‘Licence Fee Consultation June 2005’ BW proposed to increase the licence fee for boats without a home mooring by 147%. It was identified in a report by BW entitled ‘Fee Structures for Boat Licences in England and Wales White Paper’ in the same year, that if implemented it would have raised £1million from only 1,360 boat licence holders.

A group called the Continuous Cruiser Action Group was set up to coordinate boaters responses to the consultation.

A section of boaters organised themselves against it and set up a campaign mobile phone group. Some of the organised boaters travelled across the nation and painted the phone number on locks asking people to get involved. The phoneline became inundated with texts of people wanting to do something. If BW didn’t back down the plan was to send text messages for people to meet at a list of different lock pinch points and do a go slow flotilla to cause disruption. BW backed down so the resistance plan didn’t need to implemented. At the time in 2006, the Continuous Cruiser Action Group made a statement saying, “just because all has gone quiet, it isn’t over”. They weren’t wrong.

In early 2008, hire boat company Wyvern Shipping circulated a petition calling on BW to make continuous cruisers pay a higher licence fee. In January 2008, Sally Ash BW’s then Head of Boating had received a letter from the Association of Pleasure Craft Operators (APCO), the hire boat companies’ trade body, threatening a drop in BW’s licence income if BW increased the cost of hire boat licences.

In September 2008, BW issued a consultation document to the User Groups entitled ‘Boat Licence Fees – For information and comment on by Waterway User Groups’. This document included a proposal to increase the licence fee for boats without home moorings by £150 in comparison to the published tariff. BW also proposed to introduce higher licence fees for widebeam boats. However, once again boaters organised and beat these plans back.

Then in 2017, CRT announced that the licence fees system was “outdated” with the ridiculous lie that licence fees have never been reviewed. They argued that licence fees were “complex”, “unfair”, “outdated” and that their consultation into the fees would be “cost neutral”. This so called cost neutral consultation had three stages and had to change research company for the third stage.

We in the NBTA were involved in each part of the consultation. All the way through this process, CRT attempted to divide boaters, putting forward the question again about charging boats without home moorings more than those with. Therefore, we spent this time preparing to be ready to ballot our members for a licence fee strike if we had to. We weren’t going to let CRT price us off the water!

Again, it didn’t come to that. CRT decided not to take us on at that time. So they decided to halve the early payment discount, pick on wider boats and further made a statement saying they would think about how to deal with the London waterways problem; separately. This thinking has led CRT to plan to implement chargeable moorings on 1.1km of London’s regular towpath. In a meeting between NBTA and CRT this year, CRT revealed that they still haven’t implemented this plan because they haven’t been able to hire someone suitable to manage the project. While that plan is still apparently to be implemented, CRT has reached back into the bag of tricks and found the same old question, once again hoping for different reply.

As in the past, we must show the waterways authorities we aren’t a community that they can push around and do whatever they want with. We aren’t a social problem that needs culling, our way of life is worth defending and together we can beat them back! Please get involved. If you think the lifestyle of travelling without a fixed address should continue to be defended, then join us here: https://nbtalondon.co.uk/about/welcome-to-the-nbta/ or email nbtalondon@gmail.com.

Featured image by David Mould on Flickr

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

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Elmbridge moorings under threat from Council’s proposed Public Space Protection Order

June 7, 2023 stopboatlicencediscrimination Leave a comment

Elmbridge Council is seeking consultation over a proposed Public Space Protection Order (PSPO). The PSPO would, among other things, give the Council powers to issue fixed penalty notice (FPN) fines of up to £400 for mooring on the Thames for longer than 24 hours. The affected sections of river maintained by the Council would include Albany Reach, Cowey Sale Open Space, Ditton Reach and City Wharf, Hurst Park Open Space, and Cigarette Island. Also proposed are restrictions on fishing, camping, and lighting of open fires such as BBQs.

This is not the first time that Elmbridge Council has proposed restrictions on boat moorings. In 2019, the NBTA responded to proposals by the Council for an extended PSPO that would cover areas moored on by itinerant liveaboard boaters. There is an existing PSPO in Walton-on-Thames town centre, in effect since March 2021.

Up to £400 fine for mooring on Albany Reach and Cigarette Island

According to guidance from the Local Government Authority, a PSPO gives councils the authority to “prohibit specified activities, and/or require certain things to be done by people engaged in particular activities, within a defined public area”. They are intended to target behaviour considered anti-social in particular, such as drinking in or littering of public areas. PSPOs can be in place for up to three years after which they are reviewed. There is no limit on the number of renewals of a PSPO.

PSPOs are intended to address specific behaviours which are having or are likely to have a detrimental effect on the quality of life of those in the locality. Elmbridge Council’s order proposes restrictions on “unauthorised” mooring, which the Council and Environment Agency define as mooring for longer than 24 hours in a location. This is not of itself damaging to quality of life for people in the locality. As the NBTA to the Council’s 2019 PSPO consultation, “there is nothing inherently anti-social in mooring a boat that is your home on a river bank… the simple act of mooring a boat on a river bank does not of its nature have a detrimental effect on quality of life.”

The Council’s proposal claims that “boats moored without permission” has led to “increased littering and noise pollution”. Restricting the mooring of boats on the Thames does not, however, address the question of “unregistered” boats as all boats, regardless of their permission on the waterways, will be penalised by such an order. The Council should instead address littering and noise pollution directly, rather than liveaboard boaters as a proxy. As Surrey Live reported in 2020, some liveaboard boaters with licences have been confronted along the canal, in an “atmosphere of enforcement” where any distinction between “legitimate” and “unauthorised” moorings is eroded.

Indeed, organisations such as civil and human rights group Liberty have criticised the powers behind PSPOs for the “vague definition of what can be criminalised [that is] ripe for abuse”, with many councils issuing fines for homelessness and rough sleeping. According to BBC and the Manifesto Club, Councils have issued fines under PSPOs for unauthorised cycling, spitting, school drop-offs, begging, and putting up an A-frame, as well as instituting curfews for under 16s. The existing PSPO in force in Walton-on-Thames town centre prohibits riding “cycle, skateboard, scooter or hoverboard in a dangerous or anti-social way”, which seems gives Councils the scope to choose what is considered “anti-social”. There is a danger that Council’s wield the power of PSPOs to criminalise any behaviour of their choosing, in this case the mooring of boats.

Above all, such mooring restrictions will have the greatest impact on the most vulnerable in the boating community, displacing individuals and potentially criminalising them for attempting to live on a boat. Avoidance of negative impact on vulnerable communities is explicitly called for in the LGA guidance. The consultation webpage states that an Equality Impact Assessment has been conducted, but the assessment has not been provided and there is no guarantee that at-risk boaters have been taken into consideration.

If Elmbridge Council is concerned about anti-social behaviour in its borough, we suggest that the Council address those precise behaviours. Restrictions on mooring specifically target liveaboard boaters, and especially the most vulnerable in our community. The consultation is closing on 11th June 2023. The Council has not yet implemented the proposed PSPO.

Article, nbta london, Newsletter

CRT SELLING OFF ASSETS…

March 13, 2023 stopboatlicencediscrimination Leave a comment

Ever wondered where to go to buy second hand industrial grade machinery? No, not just Stanstead Abbots summer bootsale, you could try Industry Asset Services Ltd (iaservices.co.uk). And were you to visit this industrial equipment auction site, you’d quite quickly find plenty of recognisable CRT equipment sold or on sale. Mainly boats; Piling Workboats, craning boats (and the cranes), rubbish barges, even the CRT patrol boat usually moored at Enfield Lock. But the CRT own much more than just boats, and it seems that if it can be sold, it IS being sold. There’s been diggers, trailers, even replacement beams for lock gates sold off through this site.

Well why would CRT sell this stuff? The only explanation CRT gave when questioned was

that it: “would usually be the case that these boats and items are surplus to the Trust’s requirements or are no longer required in general.”

Which sounds more like, to make/ save some money. Seems fairly reasonable. Any organisation responsible for physical work and upkeep is going to need specialist machinery, tools and vehicles, and those assets will need maintenance themselves, and in some cases re- placing from time to time. So CRT are selling these things because they’re buying new ones right? Well, no. They are simply out- sourcing work in many cases. No need to have a patrol boat if you just pay more money out to a 3rd party company to do your patrols for you…

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HISTORY OF THE RIVER LEA

January 5, 2023 stopboatlicencediscrimination Leave a comment

The River Lea has long been a multi-use space, shared by all kinds of craft. In recent years, however, the Canal and River Trust has emphasised the rights of some river users over others. This is especially true as the Trust attempts to force through bans on mooring on the site of its “Water Safety Zones”, which will prevent itinerant boat dwellers from mooring in these locations for the 14 days which applies elsewhere on the waterways.

The Trust claims that more “no mooring” sites are necessary for the safety of other canal users, such as rowers and kayakers. This is despite scant evidence that moored boats cause collisions and the fact that the Lea Navigation is among the widest waterways of the country.

Moreover, boats and large barges have been using and mooring on the Lea for many years, including in places where the Trust is calling to ban moored boats. The inset photos show boats and industrial barges moored at some of these very locations.

Figure 1: Hackney Power Station, Millfields 1950-69

Figure 1, from between 1950 to 1969, shows barges unloading at Hackney Power Station, near Millfields Park in Clapton, now the site of a recycling centre. Two stretches of canal here are threatened with restriction under the Trust’s “Safety Zones”, where previously widebeam barges have moored for access.

Figure 4: Hackney Power Station, Millfields
1950-69

Figure 5: Hackney Power Station, 1950-69

Figure 6: Hackney Power Station, 1950-69

Judging from other photos from this period (Fig.4, 5, 6), this section of the navigation near the former power station has been used by considerably larger boats than tend to operate on the river today. Not only this, but Lea Rowing Club, some of the most vocal proponents of the “Safety Zones”, operated on the navigation during these years, when timber and coal barges were evidently on the water too. The waterways have been shared for some time, and it’s unreasonable that this should change now.

In a later photograph from 1973 (Figure 2), a barge is visible moored on the inside of the shallow bend leading round to Milllfields Park. Across from the Princess of Wales pub, where the CRT is proposing no mooring sections, figure 3 shows barges double-moored on the offside. Before the Lea Bridge was constructed, the river was crossed at this site by Jeremy’s and Smith’s ferries as early as 1747, according to A History of the County of Essex: Vol. 6. Passenger boats were therefore mooring at this site as long as over 200 years ago.

The scene in figure 7 will be familiar as the view from the eastern bank of the river in Hackney Wick, opposite Omega Works and looking north toward Barge East. This photo also dates from between 1950 and 1969, and shows wide-beam timber barges moored at a site which the Trust considers unfit for mooring of boats which are homes, but perfectly suitable for more lucrative restaurant boats and water sports landings.

The Canal and River Trust continues to claim that canal boats and liveaboard boaters have not been able to moor in its “Water Safety Zones”, for the benefit of other users. Clearly, there have been large craft sharing the river with others for some decades now.

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NEW ECO MOORING PLANS

January 5, 2023 stopboatlicencediscrimination Leave a comment

Westminster council have just held a consultation period for a new eco mooring zone in Paddington. If plans go ahead this will be the third eco zone in London. The other eco zones are either side of the Islington Tunnel and in Kings Cross in the borough of Camden.

In the Paddington eco mooring plans they contextualise the need for eco moorings and how it can benefit boaters and residents. They also mention pollution has caused the hospital ward near the canal to close on occasions. The council said they could not share any details about the cause of the pollution due to GDPR reasons. NBTA London is in the process of finding out more about the hospital ward closures and the reasons for them by means of a Freedom of Information request.

Paddington Basin, picture by Marc Barrot/Flickr

One particular aspect of the plan is appealing. They have presented the idea of giving grants to boaters to cover the costs of converting boats so they are able to use the electric points (total of £1445 per boat for wiring, fixtures, consumer unit, electrical appliance). However, this mock costing does not consider labour costs and is vague so we can’t be sure whether it’s suitable for all boats. How they would decide which boaters receive the funding is also not clear. As stated in the pamphlet, these conversion grants are not guaranteed. The council will have to apply for funding but there is a worry that the conversion grants idea is tokenistic.

NBTA London met with Westminster council to ask for more details about the eco zone plans. Present at the meeting were 2 members of K&A consultants, a member of Westminster council and a member of CRT. The Westminster council member played the politician and gave no real answers to our questions stating that the plan is dependent on the results of the consultation and available funding. It was clear the council didn’t want to commit to anything. However, we did propose some ideas on how they could make the eco moorings suitable for more boaters which were received positively:

Provide electrical heaters that can be borrowed by boaters.

This would mean boats with off-shore power hook-up wouldn’t need to adapt their boats and they could plug the heaters into their existing plugs.

Integrate a battery charger into the electrical point.

This would mean boats wouldn’t need to run their engines or diesel generators and they wouldn’t need to buy any extra appliances to fulfil their electrical needs. Especially as not all boats will be suitable for conversion.

King’s Cross, Regents Canal, picture by Diamond Geezer/Flickr

All London boroughs have clean air plans to meet clean air targets because illegal levels of air pollution are still being recorded in London, including in the city of Westminster (levels of nitrogen dioxide have been recorded up to 50% higher than legal levels in various areas across London). Despite the pollution from boats being negligible in comparison to the pollution caused by road transport and domestic/commercial heating systems, where we can, it’s good to reduce our emissions. However, in order to transition, boaters need time and support. Stoves and diesel engines are crucial to heat boats and to supply enough power during the Winter months, and are necessary for the majority of the waterways that are without electrical charging points. Then there is the issue of space and money to make boats suitable to use the electric points.

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Together we can stop the boat cull!

January 5, 2023 stopboatlicencediscrimination 1 Comment

As many of you know, when CRT first proposed the full details of the Water ‘Safety’ Zones we calculated that 550 mooring spaces would be lost in Broxbourne, Tottenham and Hackney. As part of this CRT proposed introducing a number of ‘no mooring’ sites in areas which had been moored on and off for years, plus a ban on double mooring and wider boats in many areas.

Following the magnificent efforts of the boating community to push back against these ‘Safety’ Zones, CRT initially appeared to desist from their implementation, in favour of a navigation forum of stakeholders. Unfortunately CRT are still attempting to impose the most extreme part of the original ‘Safety’ Zones outline – the new no mooring sections. CRT has been claiming the ‘no mooring’ sites are based on preexisting rules and regulations, while making up new rules to say the sections have always been ‘no mooring’. This flies in the face of the fact that many of these ‘no mooring’ sections have been moored on for over a hundred years.

Boater’s resisting the ‘Safety Zones’ on the lower River Lea

We in the NBTA have been attending the navigation forum of stakeholders over safety, the Lea Navigation Forum. In this CRT had tried to not talk about the ‘no mooring’ sites, however, we have again and again been putting forward our disagreements over the many ‘no mooring’ sections. This has been done alongside collective boaters’ action to keep mooring in places which we are challenging. CRT in return has announced a reduction of ‘no mooring’ restriction by a total of 157 metres. These include near or under pedestrian bridges and a few other places, often just an extra metre here or there. CRT has now admitted that there are no safety concerns for boats to moor near or under many of the footbridges. Therefore, along with mooring spaces CRT isn’t openly planning to implement such as ban on double mooring etc, so far we have saved 263 mooring spaces out of 550 CRT first wanted to get rid of. While it is good news that CRT seems to be seeing sense on some restrictions, there are many enforced ‘no mooring’ sections which still make no sense in terms of general safety. To see which restrictions we are challenging and CRT’s and our own claimed reasoning, we have put together a clear and concise document which can be found at: https://nbtalondon.wordpress.com/2022/10/14/nbta-londons-position-on-the-water-safety-zones-explained-in-this-handy-pdf/

CRT ‘No Mooring Sign’ in one of the ‘Safety Zones’

CRT ‘No Mooring Sign’ in a ‘Safety Zone’ on the Lower Lea covered over with a bin bag

Most importantly, we must continue as a community to keep mooring on the ‘no mooring’ sites. NBTA will continue to attend the forum meetings and offer legal assistance to boaters, however, what will win this will be the hundreds of boaters who continue to resist and temporarily moor on the safe ‘no mooring’ sites. If you’re in the above areas and see a safe ‘no mooring’ site, please moor there for up to two weeks. If CRT sends you a notice saying you are breaching Condition 12.2 of the T&Cs or that you are entering the improper mooring process, ignore these. You have the full support of the NBTA to do so.

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Moorings threatened in Harlesden

October 13, 2022 stopboatlicencediscrimination Leave a comment

The green space in Harlesden, which is many boaters’ most popular West London mooring, is being gentrified by developers in tandem with the mayor’s office. The ‘regeneration’ claims to be creating a ‘boaters’ paradise’, but will involve replacing the grass verge with mooring rings (which are easy to remove in the future) and will take away 3 visitor mooring spaces which will be replaced with ‘community boats and a canoe pontoon. Because the canal to the East and West of Harlesden is too shallow to moor on, this reduces capacity in Harlesden by approximately 20%.

Towpath in Harlesden (Image by diamond geezer/Flickr)

Apparently as a compensation measure, the developers are installing an elsan and water point at the West end of the stretch, but we remember that CRT promised us facilities years ago. So, in reality, these moorings spaces are being taken without any compensation measures being made. This is yet another example of CRT working with developers behind our backs and to our detriment.

While the NBTA have objected to the planning proposal, we are considering the next steps we should take to fight for the moorings.

If you would like to get involved in this, please email nbtalondon@gmail.com to let us know that you want to help.

For more information about the development, see here:

https://consult.opdc.london.gov.uk/harlesdencanalside

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Meeting at Mayor’s office

October 12, 2022 stopboatlicencediscrimination Leave a comment

On 14 March 2022, NBTA London had a meeting with Deborah Halling, Senior Policy Officer, Housing and Land GREATER LONDON AUTHORITY about NBTA Pan London Needs Assessment For Boat Dwellers Without A Home Mooring.

In the meeting, which was requested by Deborah Halling, NBTA reminded the Mayor’s office of the relevant excerpt of the existing policy for itinerant boaters, including that it was imperative for the Housing to talk direct with NBTA rather than CRT with regard to number of boats without a home mooring, and what the needs are for boat dwellers without a home mooring. We informed her of CRT’s continued reduction of mooring spaces, of CRT’s refusal to have a consultation until NBTA put pressure on CRT to do so. We also explained some basic mooring terminology, and why “bookable” moorings should not compromise existing towpath mooring spaces.

CCing boats on the Regents Canal, Islington visitor moorings (Image by Marc Barrot/Flickr)

We suggested that planning could have some weight with developers in ensuring that mooring spaces in the developed area are not taken away or restricted for boat dwellers without home moorings, for example; furthermore, simple and inexpensive facilities could be encouraged to be installed (water taps, secure boaters bins/recycling) alongside land residential facilities.

In follow-up emails after the meeting the question of grants for boat dwellers without home moorings for solar panels (thus reducing emissions whilst moored) has also been raised.

Deborah Halling was apparently committed to continuing talks with NBTA about Pan London Needs Assessment For Boat Dwellers Without A Home Mooring.

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CRT’s skewed spending

August 24, 2022 stopboatlicencediscrimination Leave a comment

It is possible to see the priorities of an organisation by what they spend their money on. On London waterways, CRT spends more money on enforcement than on boaters’ facilities.

The cost of wages & equipment for Licensing Support Officers and Rangers and Mooring Rangers in 2020 was roughly £371k. Additionally, from October to the end of December CRT spent £24,840 on the District Enforcement in ‘safety’ zones. CRT has budgeted an extra £180k for District Enforcement for this year. Enforcement isn’t the only thing they like to spend their money on.

For 2020 Stuart Mills, the Investment Officer, received a salary and benefits totalling £236,936. CRT also paid the head of CRT, Richard Parry, a salary and benefits totalling,£226,346. It cost CRT £463,282 for just two salaries in one year.

We we’re unable to calculate how much the CRT executive team costs in total as the two salaries mentioned were the only ones published, there was no data for the rest of the team, so we can only imagine! However, in the same year CRT spent only £350K on boater facilities on the London Waterways.

So to recap, the figures are as follows:

£395K for enforcement on London Waterways
£463K on the salary and benefits of just two staff at the CRT executive team
and just £350K on boaters facilities on the London Waterways.

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