Its with quite a lot of sadness that I watch the reaction of people on this list to the BW proposals. There has been but one constructive message and all the rest have said that everyone else should pay more but not me! FFS we are all in the same boat as it were the increases may just affect minority groups this year but trust me there will be general increases over time for all and they will be bigger then you think! What should be happening is that we should be presenting a united front not all this me me me me that is going on.
Personally I favour the approach that the licence system needs a complete overhaul and that the licence for any boat should be proportional to the cruising range of that boat from its home mooring, so for example a 57ft narrowboat would pay the most as it would have access to the while system, a 70ft narrow boat would pay less as there are canals that it cant do also a barge larger than 70ftx14 moored on the river severn would pay less as its range would only be the Severn and G&S. Prices could be set as along the lines: access to the whole system full price access to the southern system for broad beam boats full price access to the northern system for broad beam boats full price 70ft narrowboat full price less 7% ( a guess at how much a 70ft boat cant access). This would be far fairer than what is being proposed. No wait Ive got a better idea all boats whose name begins with A should pay more this year then B next year C the year after That's about as fair as what BW are proposing
