Tom Chance wrote: > Can our resident waterways experts comment on the most appropriate > tagging for navigable rivers in the UK? > For example, I see you’re allowed to use a boat on the Thames along > navigable parts with a license… does that mean it should be “boat=yes” > or “boat=permissive”?
Short answer: I'd say boat=yes. You have to tax a car, get it through its MoT etc. to use public roads but we still tag them as motor_vehicle=yes rather than =permissive (well, it's implied by the highway tag, but you know what I mean). It's pretty analogous to that. Long answer: there is actually a public right of navigation on the Thames and several other rivers. The right is subject to boats being "registered" (that's what they call it on the Thames, as opposed to "licensed" on the canals) with the successor body of the Thames Conservancy, which is currently the Environment Agency. But as long as you fulfil the requirements of registration (fee paid, current Boat Safety Certificate, etc.) then you have a legal right to use the river. That's why the red and yellow boards at Thames locks tell you that navigation is discouraged in times of flood rather than prohibited. There is no such right on the canals: it was abolished by the 1968 Transport Act (IIRC). Your navigation is by permission of British Waterways. In practice there's no difference to rivers like the Thames - you pay your licence, you get your BSS, you're allowed on - but there is a theoretical difference in law. So if there were a case for =permissive tags it would be on the canals, but again, I'd say that since this permission is always granted and is what's expected for such thoroughfares, =yes is more appropriate. Waterway law is fascinating, archaic, uneven and rarely understood. BW's lawyers still have to refer to a 13th century Act to tell them what the organisation is permitted to do on the River Lee, for example. cheers Richard -- View this message in context: http://gis.638310.n2.nabble.com/Boat-permissions-c-f-waterways-map-tp5947459p5947784.html Sent from the Great Britain mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ Talk-GB mailing list Talk-GB@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-gb
