Steve Wood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >Using price to reduce overstaying is not what BW are suggesting; its the >exact opposite: pay and you can stay where you like for as long as you >like. The £25 per day overstay charge already exists in lots of >locations (ISTR that you said previously all locations in the south >actually) and I'm told the rule is largely ignored/unused. We then have >the worst of both worlds, overstaying in popular sites and no money >generated. Any new policy should be based on penalising overstaying not >legitimising it. > >A month or so ago I was moored in Wheelock and talking to someone who >was quite proud of his ability to overstay in that area. He had recently >been contacted by Northwich who said that if he wanted to stay in >Wheelock then he would have to pay a charge as it is a nominated winter >mooring site. He asked if this guaranteed him a mooring if he moved away >and back and they said no. He told them to get stuffed. I can imagine >anyone else who is asked to pay without getting a specific mooring would >do the same. Also I can imagine it would be pretty near impossible to >get someone who has paid off a time restricted mooring. > >> I like this idea. >I think that as a solution to the continuous mooring problem it has not >been thought through and is destined to cause more problems than it >solves. As a revenue raising exercise it is marginally better but still >pretty poor as it's easy to bypass.
I wrote a WW article about this a while back. The real problem is that CCs don't pay for moorings. The average boater (who does have a long-term mooring) uses the public moorings no more than about 2 months a year. The CCs use them 12 months a year. To me, that says that CCs should be invoiced a mooring charge worth 10/12 of the price of an annual long-term mooring. That would make getting a CC licence much less financially attractive (in comparison to a conventional licence) than it is now, and should reduce the numbers of them significantly I think. However, BW hasn't summoned the fortitude to do this yet. But perhaps the roving charge is the first step. And, after all, mooring prices vary from region to region. I agree there is serious under-enforcement with respect to overstaying, and that the £25/day charge is sadly under-used. BW says that applying the charge is unduly expensive, as it has to gather daily evidence about how long a boat has been moored at the same "place" in order to levy the charge. I expect, though, it could find a way to make this much less expensive if it really wanted to. However, if such charges were introduced, they would be by way of the licence system. If a boat has no licence, BW can get rid of it. I agree that the roving mooring permit is not the best long-term solution. But I hope it might be better than the current situation. Adrian . Adrian Stott 07956-299966
