News From ATYC June 2008 meeting reported by Tony Scott:

LOCK HOUSES: Of the 72 houses owned by the EA, 22 could potentially be sold or rented. UNISON has asked that a decision on action should be postponed and with Government pressure this has been agreed by the EA. However, they still intend to proceed to sell 6 houses (4 are not at lock-sides and the other 2 are second houses at locks) and to rent out a further 12 houses as they fall vacant. The EA has undertaken to review the situation and the cost-benefits in November 2010.

ATYC has no comments to make on the sale of houses away from locks and felt that it could not oppose the sale of second houses at locks. There is no suggestion of selling any of the three houses at Teddington. The letting of the houses will only take place when a lock-keeper retires, resigns or indicates that he/she does not need the house. The EA will start by letting one house and will then examine the financial consequences.

Lock-keepers’ Terms and Conditions are to be reviewed in negotiations between the EA and UNISON.  Under discussion is the Better Ways of Working (BOW) programme.

LONG-TERM MOORERS: The EA has obtained counsel’s opinion concerning long-term moorers on 24-hour moorings. From 16^th June, those concerned will be sent a letter informing them of the consequences of remaining on the mooring and if they do not move, the EA will apply for a Possession Order through the courts. If successful, the boat will be towed to Sunbury Yard, craned out and taken by road to the Thames & Kennett Marina where agreement has been reached that they can remain on their hard-standing for a reasonable length of time before being sold to defray the EA costs. There are currently three 24-hour sites that have problems: Stevens Ait, Walton and Reading (Kennett mouth). Signs indicating 24-hours free, 3 days at £5 per night and thereafter £50 per night will be displayed at these sites. Tesco moorings at Reading are the responsibility of Reading Borough Council and not the EA .

News From ATYC October 2007 meeting reported by Tony Scott:

Floods.  Approx. 121mm (≈ 5 ins) of rain fell in the Upper Thames catchment area on Fri 20^th& Sat 21^st July.  We were informed that Eileen McKeever considered that the EA’s role was to provide information, the emergency services were there to provide rescue and assistance, often in the form of drinking water and food deliveries to stranded boaters. About 400 boats were stranded and in danger on the Thames during the floods.  The EA sent out daily text messages to about 100 boaters who passed the information on to others.  Lock Keepers were commended on their assistance to boaters.  Red boards are displayed at locks when all of the weir gates are fully open.  The EA policy is not to issue lifejackets to Summer Assistants, so during the two weeks of Red boards, the Summer Assistants were sent home on full pay.  Finally, contrary to what some people believe, boats are insured when navigating when red boards are displayed although obviously reasonable care needs to be taken.  A solicitor’s advice was that an insurance policy covers all situations unless they are specifically excluded.

Moorings.  On the canals, BWB actually owns both banks (in towns it may lease out the land) and so has total control over where mooring is permitted, for how long and at what charge.  It does not charge for an overnight mooring.  On the Thames the riparian owners make their own decisions and levy whatever charge they think fit.  The EA is only responsible for navigation; it usually does not own the riverbank.  It is upon this fact that the problem with itinerants or water gypsies arises.  The EA cannot move them on where it does not own the bank.  A towpath gives the public the right to pass over someone’s land when towing a boat, it does not indicate ownership by the EA.

Local Authority mooring charges vary considerably. At Abingdon it is free.  Windsor & Maidenhead Council have two moorings: at Windsor Leisure Centre it is £4 per 24 hours, at Cookham it is £5 overnight. The problem at Windsor is that the charge starts from 12 mid-day so if you stop for lunch, you are liable to be asked to pay £4.       The charge at the South Bucks District Council moorings below the railway bridge at Maidenhead has been raised to £12 for 24 hours.  At all of the above places, a full charge is made for rafted-out boats.  At Hampton Court, the first night is free, thereafter £5 per night. (By comparison, overnight mooring on the Hamble is £25).

River Finances.  The EA is committed to a 12% annual increase in licence charges for 2007, 2008 and 2009 but have now agreed that a 12% pa rise is not sustainable beyond three years.

The Navigation Section on the Thames currently has 142 staff and this will be reduced to 122.  Windrush was sold in early October. More money is being allocated for out-of-hours electrification of the locks. Currently, there are 11 locks from Godstow downstream without out-of-hours power and it will be installed in 4 of them this winter.  It will not be installed at Marlow and Cookham until winter 2008/9.  From about April 2008, the Richmond Barrier will be electrically powered and remotely controlled from Woolwich.  The opening times will remain as 2-hours each side of high water. Richmond Lock will only be available for free use 7am-7pm, Summer and Winter.  Out-of-hours use may be booked at £35 per lock.  For next year at least, Teddington will remain open 24 hours.

March 2007 – DEFRA CUTS

At the ATYC members meeting on 14^th March it was decided NOT to hold a river protest on 12/13 May.  Action may be deferred, as member clubs were asked to consider whether they wanted a river protest and to further discuss this item at the next meeting on 20^th June.  Two useful proposals were taken up, (i) a letter from each member to their local MP protesting about DEFRA cuts to the Environment Agency budget, and (ii) a windscreen sticker “No DEFRA cuts” to be produced and distributed by ATYC to all Clubs for distribution to their members.  Members must be quite clear that the protest is about DEFRA cuts to the EA budget; the year-on-year increase of 12% in the licence cost has already been implemented. ATYC protests brought this down from a much higher figure.

April 2007 - BOAT SAFETY SCHEME

The Boat Safety Scheme will be self-funding from 1^st April 2007 and the £450,000pa needed to run it will have to come from boaters.  This means that the certificate fee will be raised to between £30 and £50, and the cost of performing the test must be added to this. It’s an interesting point that boaters and examiners are now the only stakeholders and the EA, BWB and Broads Authority have no financial input and should, theoretically, have no voice in the scheme.

 March 2007 – RED DIESEL

The following information was obtained from the Inland Waterways Association.

Following meetings with IWA, British Marine Federation and Royal Yachting Association, as part of the budget announcements on 21st March, H M Revenue & Customs has agreed that the current lower rate of taxation of diesel used in pleasure craft will remain until 1st November 2008.  From this date, fuel used for private pleasure boating will no longer benefit from the current reduced rate of duty.  The change in regulations will be made by an amendment to The Hydrocarbon Oil Duties Act 1979, through the 2008 Finance Act. The exact arrangements are yet to be worked out, as H M Revenue & Customs has agreed to hold a formal consultation later in 2007.  However, the budget announcement appears to provide two more summers of boating at the lower rate of taxation.