Nick wrote: > The thing that strikes me as messy is that I bet there are a thousand > ways to work out what the mooring charge that should be added to the > license is, and I bet very few moorings would go down commensurately.
I suggested this a year or so ago and the argument against it from marina moorers was that they didn't think the marina would reduce the charge to them even if BW didn't charge the connection fee any more. Presumably this is where the infamous "market" would come into play and drive down prices ;-) I would support a change to the system where everyone paid a bit extra on the licence fee if (and only if) EOG mooring charges and marina connection charges were scrapped. (I don't have either of those so its not a vested interest!) It would also make marina mooring relatively cheaper so may encourage online moorers to move offline which benefits everyone. This year has seen a significant increase of resources put in by BW to policing overstaying, unlicenced boats etc. so a standard nationwide daily overstaying charge (say £25?) would be relatively easy to introduce at the same time without significant extra cost. Anyone who refused to pay would ultimately lose their licence on renewal so the desired results of freeing up popular moorings and stopping towpath shufflers would be achieved pretty quickly. Steve NB Bream
