Dear Members

For those of you who live on Canal & River Trust waterways, BBC Inside Out South and Hardcash Productions want to hear from boaters without home moorings who have been refused a 12-month licence or who are affected by CRT’s new policy.

BBC Inside Out South is doing a feature on CRT’s new policy for boaters without home moorings. The producer has contacted the NBTA because they want to speak to any liveaboard boaters in their area (temporarily or permanently) who are affected by this, especially if you have been refused a 12-month licence in circumstances where your licence has been renewed without question for a number of years previously and you’ve had the same cruising pattern each year.

The areas that BBC Inside Out South covers where there are CRT waterways are Oxford, Berkshire and south east Wiltshire (it also covers Surrey, Sussex, Dorset, Hampshire and Isle of Wight). The programme is 30 minutes with three 10-minute reports. It is a weekly current affairs programme that looks behind the headlines. They are looking to film in July or August and this will be broadcast in September on a Monday evening at 7.30pm on BBC1.

Hardcash Productions are making a documentary for BBC or Channel 4 on how the new policy is affecting boaters. They are also looking for boat dwellers to interview. These are the kind of people they would like to interview:

1) People who are soon to have their licence renewed (next two months) and are worried whether it will be renewed.

2) Anyone involved in a court case with CRT.

3) People who have been on the receiving end of enforcement letters, which have made them anxious and where they dispute what is in the letters or had an altercation with enforcement officers.

4) People due to or thinking about moving onto land, or have already moved onto land, either voluntarily (as felt under too much pressure) or because they were evicted.

6) A family who live on the canals with young kids and could show how hard it is to keep moving.

7) Someone who is elderly or otherwise vulnerable because of disability or physical or mental ill-health – how are they coping with all the stress?

If you are interested in being filmed by either BBC or Hardcash, please contact the NBTA: secretariat@bargee-traveller.org.uk or 0118 321 4128 – ideally THIS WEEK (by 17th July 2015) please if possible – and we will pass your details on.

Thank you.

Best regards,

Nick Brown
Secretary