Roger wrote... There is a population of boats already on the water and unless they are destroyed, taken to another country or take up mass civil disobedience by mooring all along the cut, that proportion that is the existing marina population will not shrink significantly.
It's not so much deliberate civil disobedience, but I gather that around our area of the GU there are spare marina berths (unheard of for many years) and a marked increase in towpath lurkers. Some of these have expressed the view that they can afford the license or the mooring, but not both! Glen
