South East Visitor Mooring Consultation You Cant JUST Disagree!!!

I was lucky enough to get an invite from fellow boater Steve Jay (Cowley & Uxbridge Boaters) to attend a meeting instigated by C&RT regarding the current South East Visitor Mooring Consultation. He and Alan Fincher had been invited to have a chat with John Dodwell (Trustee) and Sally Ash (Head of Boating). 

May I just thank Steve Jay for the invite and opportunity to air my concerns. It is much appreciated.

Alan has written an excellent summary of the meeting which he will be posting on line soon so thank you Alan (and Mrs Alan) for doing that. To avoid duplications I will post a link to his summary as soon as it is live but in the meantime I would like to discuss the main point I came home with. 

Basically, if you have already submitted your feedback and it just says I disagree, I don't think it is going to help. They (C&RT) have made it quite clear that if you disagree you need to say why AND offer a viable alternative for your views to count.  Just saying no or that you disagree will be regarded as an invalid contribution and your feedback will effectively be disregarded. C&RT made this point WORRYINGLY CLEAR at the meeting. 

All the way home on the train I was having a conversation with myself on how on earth this could be achieved with the small amount of information we have been given.   I can only guess as to what C&RT's reasons are for the consultation are in the first place.  As any and all requests for more detailed information or the reasoning behind the consultation have been stone-walled. 

So, now you are well and truly on your journey into the labyrinth that is Ronnis' mind and thought processes.  This is how I think and work stuff out.  Luckily for you hardly any of it gets on the blog lol!! but I may consider requests ;0)

Anyway, It appears to me that C&RT are either trying to solve a multitude of problems with one answer or just trying to generate revenue.  I would prefer to think it was not the latter as the easiest way to rectify that would be just to enforce the restrictions that they currently have in place.  And that is REALLY OBVIOUS!! so logically it cant be the reason.   In addition to that, to spend a whole load of the charitys' cash on creating a whole new set of new restrictions that history has proved they don't enforce is a horrific waste of the charitys' money.

So I have to assume its the first reason.

So, I decided to put myself in C&RT's shoes and tried to think of as many reasons as I could that might cause C&RT to have to intervene as it were. 

This is what I have come up with so far.

• Local Residents complaining regarding noisy,smokey boats moored outside their homes. 
• Hire boat companies receiving complaints from their hirers.  Stating that they can't moor in the Town Centres they planned to visit on their holidays due to visitor moorings being full of boats.
• Other boaters complaining that they cant moor in 'honey pot areas' due to the visitor moorings being full.
• Boaters refraining from moving their boat (whether livaboard or not) every 14 days and staying in a very small geographical area.  (dont jump down my throat about this one, its just a thought process not a judgement I was very careful how I worded this in order not to offend).
• Local Business complaining that they are losing trade due to the turnover of boats being too slow. (More boat traffic, more customers).
• Abuse of facility moorings ie boats staying for a week on a waterpoint etc
• Abuse of 'visitor' moorings ie boats overstaying on a 48hr /7 or 14 day mooring.
• Abuse of Lock Landings ie mooring where other boaters need to moor to enable them to work the lock

The answer to some of these problems is obvious, to others less so. But the way I see it is that if C&RT cannot see fit to share with me what the reason for the changes at each of the 22 sites in question is but insist on white washing over them with the same solution the best I can do is to try and offer solutions to the problems and request they implement them in the most relevant sites. 

At least that way I have half a chance of my feedback actually being listened to and acted upon.

All I need to do now is find the answers............................................

Have you got a headache too??

Link to the Consultation itself: http://canalrivertrust.org.uk/media/library/2565.pdf

Link to Cowley and Uxbridge Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/71446695351/10152557902295352/?ref=notif&notif_t=group_comment_reply#!/groups/519323511420831/