The Floater September 2018

Bid to protect Brum's canals from developers

September 2018 - An attempt by a developer to build a 12-storey block of flats on the site of the Flapper Pub, on Birmingham’s Cambrian Wharf – currently stalled after a mass public protest and objections, including one from Canal & River Trust – has led to a bid to protect all of the city’s central canals by creating planning Conservation Areas.

September 2018 - Boaters are probably more nostalgic than most, and canal book shops and tourist attractions are full of histories and memoirs of the cut, often written many years ago but reprinted over and ove. Many will have come across a book called Back Door Britain, written nearly 50 years ago in the early days of canals for leisure.

However Anthony Burton’s look at the canals and their surroundings in the early 1970’s has not just been reprinted – it has been renamed and upgraded to include some colour illustrations of his journey.

September 2018 - Jenny Maxwell, an experienced boater, felt moved to write a personal polemic that we feel will chime with many boaters, so we asked and she agreed that we could share it more widely with our readers.

“Huh! YOU’VE got a nice life!” Today, this remark came from a man on a disability scooter as he and the woman who was walking beside him passed me and Dru and Jim when we were sitting on the log bench outside our boats drinking coffee.

September 2018 - It seems counter-intuitive, at best, that the Inland Waterways Association (IWA) – one of the Environment Agency’s harshest critics – should present a prestigious 55-year-old trophy to Environment Agency staff as thanks for their hard work in helping boaters, reports Alec Wood.

The IWA made the gesture at their Festival of Water at St Neots where hundreds of boats and thousands of visitors gathered around the River Great Ouse over the bank holiday weekend.

September 2018 - As Canal & River Trust makes it’s annual announcement of the location and costs of winter moorings it is clear prices are rising and locations are not always where boaters want them to be, as Charles Alberts reports.

The Trust has created a Premier League of winter moorings in London where the monthly price demanded for a 60ft boat would just about secure a full residential marina mooring elsewhere in the country, working out at £3,888, if translated into an annual cost.

September 2018 - The Floater is being told by sources throughout Canal & River Trust that the charity is close to selling its BWML subsidiary which now runs 18 marinas nationally. The number of marinas soared in recent years after a spending spree, using C&RT money, to buy up private marinas. Peter Underwood took a look.

September 2018 - It seems the government is very determined to keep under wraps exactly what the new working party set up by Defra minister Dr Thérèse Coffey to look at 'boats used as accommodation' is designed to achieve – leading to experienced observers to become even more convinced that changes to the 1995 British Waterways Act - particularly the 14-day rule and the section allowing boats to be licensed with no home mooring - was on the agenda for discussion and in the briefing, as Peter Underwood reports.

September 2018 - Just over two weeks ago, The Floater published an article which said: ‘Asked to explain discrepancies within its own figures on canal closures, Canal and River Trust’s head of legal services [Tom Deards] claimed answering the questions, from The Floater’s Allan Richards, would cause: “harassment of, or distress to, the public authorities staff'. He added 'We do reserve the right to bring this behaviour to the attention of the relevant authorities for the purposes of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.’

September 2018 - A couple of days ago The Floater reported that, despite promises from Jon Horsfall, Canal & River Trust’s Head of Customer Services, that the charity would “be in contact again one we have established the cause of the breach” no explanation has been made. It seems we were wrong and that the Trust has released more details... but, until now, only to the people directly affected, as Peter Underwood reports.

September 2018 - Despite promises from Jon Horsfall, Canal & River Trust’s Head of Customer Services, to nearly a thousand customers affected by a substantial data breach on August 22 that the charity would “be in contact again once we have established the cause of the breach” no explanation has been made, as Peter Underwood reports.

September 2018 - The Floater is reproducing an article from the National Bargee Travellers Association which looks at what seems to be a bid by a private parking company to take control and profit from Thames moorings – The River Thames Alliance (RTA) could face mass resignations at a critical meeting if proposals to change its unaccountable governance structure are not agreed at the forthcoming AGM on 4th September 2018. Currently RTA members have no say in the appointment of the Alliance’s directors.

September 2018 - At least one Bargee Traveller family has successfully negotiated a Term Time Cruising Pattern with Canal & River Trust (C&RT) ahead of the new school year, as Nick Brown, National Bargee Travellers Association Legal Officer reports.

The family will spend term times within an approximate five mile stretch of waterway, staying no longer than 14 days in any one place unless a longer stay is reasonable in the circumstances.

The Floater September 2018

Bid to protect Brum's canals from developers

The back doors of Britain in a diifferent age

A boater's perspective

IWA award for Environment Agency

Winter mooring prices rise

Is C&RT close to selling BWML?

DEFRA keeps secrets of working group hidden – so boaters fear law change

C&RT's canal closure figures don't hold water

Now C&RT says it has explained data breach

No answers yet to trust's data problem

River Thames Alliance in disarray after District Enforcement chief appointed to board

Liveaboard family negotiate term time cruising pattern with C&RT

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The Floater September 2018