gentrification | National Bargee Travellers Association

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.

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CRT would like to start charging ‘extra’ for Towpath Moorings. Normally your licence includes the right to moor on any towpath without extra charge. CRT would like to turn 1.1km of London’s regular towpath into new ‘Chargeable’ Moorings that would cost an additional £84 extra a week. Why? Because CRT believes financially excluding people from these moorings will somehow make them ‘fairer’. Boaters who can afford it will be able to reserve themselves a guaranteed mooring space, at the expense of less wealthy Boaters who will find their mooring opportunities significantly reduced.

Proposed chargeable mooring sites along the London Canal Network

In reality this would financially exclude many residential boaters without a home mooring from 1.1km of the mooring space they rely on for their livelihood. Much like every other CRT Policy, this prioritises Leisure Boating over Residential Boating – CRT have no actual adjustments in any of their strategies that actively support itinerant, residential boating. Perhaps there is a question here – do CRT believe that holidays are more important than homes? Most worrying of all, evidence suggests that these new chargeable moorings will often remain empty and unused.

Paddington Basin, one of the chargeable mooring locations. Pic by Nick Sarebi, Flickr

CRT have conducted an online survey about their ‘Chargeable Mooring’ plans – unfortunately their survey is invalid for the following reasons:

CRT’s survey is invalid because it claims a Pilot Chargeable Mooring Scheme they ran was a great success. In fact, it was only used 25% of the time – the rest of the time it remained empty and unused.

CRT’s survey is invalid because it is based on CRT creating new regular towpath moorings – to replace the ones being annexed off for wealthier boaters. A Freedom Of Information Request revealed that CRT does not know where these ‘replacement’ regular moorings will be. Historically CRT have promised many new mooring spaces that have not materialised – so if CRT do not know where these ‘replacement’ moorings will be, effectively they do not exist.

Boaters in 2017 tried to stop the Gasworks offside mooring in Bethnal Green from becoming private ‘paid’ moorings

CRT’s survey is invalid because it initially misinformed participants that only 40 regular towpath moorings would be lost to this ‘Chargeable’ mooring scheme. Due to another Freedom Of Information request they later had to amend these false figures mid-survey to 1.1km. This could amount to 120 regular mooring spaces being lost, so this survey was initially based on a false premise.*

CRT’s survey is invalid because it is filled with coercive questions that force participants to suggestively agree to things they do not. The question ‘How many times a year should you be allowed to moor on a Chargeable Mooring?’ does not allow me to disagree with the whole concept in the first place – one can only hope that CRT does not ‘cherry-pick’ their data.

CRT’s survey is invalid because when it suggests introducing a ‘no widebeam double mooring’ policy it misrepresents the facts. London’s canals are some of the widest in the country. There are many places throughout London’s canals where you can double moor onto a widebeam and leave an enormous amount of space for navigation. The impact of removing this double mooring capacity will be vast. Yet again – the survey is based on a false premise.

Angel is another proposed site for chargeable moorings. Pic by Alan Firkser

So where does that leave us? A poorly constructed, invalid survey about a poorly conceived scheme, based on falsehoods and prejudice. No Equality Impact Assessment to demonstrate how this will affect family/residential/disabled/older/financially disadvantaged boaters (CRT have promised to conduct one – but only once the scheme is effectively a done deal). Then there is the strange assertion that making something financially prohibitive will somehow make it fairer (- for whom?).

It feels like history is repeating itself. Yet another policy aimed at debilitating the Itinerant Boating Community, founded on a swamp of misinformation, without any form of proper consultation – in particular, no consultation with those it will impact the most. Surely in any proposal worth its salt you would conduct an Equality Impact Assessment before presenting it to the general public – otherwise you risk promoting discrimination… unless, of course, that is exactly what you intend to do.

And let’s not lose sight of the door that is being opened – one where CRT can charge whatever it likes, for any towpath mooring, anywhere. This new CRT Policy could in fact be a step-by-step guide on how to make a public asset financially exclusive.

* This was calculation assumes boats are 60ft each. The number is higher if you assume boat smaller.

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National Bargee Travellers Association – London Branch

Tag Archives: gentrification

Gentrification of London waterways: CRT’s chargeable moorings policy will price boaters out

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