We returned to the G&S today after a 3 month bout of continuous
cruising, just in time to attend this meeting at the WW Museum
organised by the Severn & G+S user group and attended by Ian Jarvis (BW
SW area manager) and Eugene B.
Very well organised and attended by something like 200 boating folk
from Stourport down to Sharpness. The point was to provide feedback to
BW concerning their proposals to make the Severn & G+S a "book to
cruise" waterway during the period Nov to Easter. Despite their failure
to consult effectively I do (perhaps naively) feel that BW believed the
proposal offered boaters a half decent solution to operating on a
substantially reduced budget. And all this pre DEFRA cuts, allegedly.
No obvious presence of fisherfolk, walkers, nature lovers, rowists,
cyclists etc
There was some passion delivered, some of it misguided, if not half
baked. Half a dozen diverse boater's agendas were aired - from dredging
to charging for parking. It remains to be seen if some useful output
can be generated which will optimise the future operations of this
particular waterway.
All the usual live-aboard and continuous cruising status issues wobbled
about in the background and did not really help the situation. It seems
that there are no residential moorings on the waterway and yet it
probably harbours one of the highest percentages of liveaboards in the
country !
The issue here was supposed to be the provision of navigation
opportunities, and it became horribly blurred at times.
My conclusions were
1) BW is not the boater's enemy, especially just at the moment
2) The waterways are principally for navigation and not a place to
live. The very existence of the recently penned term "apartment boat"
should be subjected to the Exocet treatment and such "craft" should be
sold only to people holding an official residential mooring
3) There is huge confusion between funds deemed to be "public money"
which should be expended for the good of the wider community and
"customer's money" which should be be expended to provide the services
implicit in the contract
4) There is little point in bringing new "restored" waterways back on
line if government will not recognise their value. BW seems to have
meagre prospects for provision of maintenance and operations if the
DEFRA mentality can exist.
Not a great day, in our opinion.
Beeky & his mate Staffy
50/50
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