Ice Breaking

We awoke to a red sunrise after a chilly night. The fire was still alight but had not been fully effective at keeping our noses warm throughout the whole of what was probably our coldest night for some time.

We needed to get to Braunston to retrieve the car as we needed to be in Banbury this morning at ten. So we had to break ice! I don't like doing it but needs must.

We arrived in Braunston and found a spare length of 14 day mooring. Of course the rings in Brauston appear to have been put in haphazardly. Some are 10 ft apart and some are 40 ft apart. We happened to be next to two of the latter and the next ring is twenty feet from our bow and useless to us. So we are moored on the stern rope and centre rope. I do not like to use this but, once again, needs must! There is nowhere to drive a pin into on the concrete pileing cap of the GUC and no piling rail to clip to either.

We got back to Banbury in time for our appointment and then went to London to visit the Best Mate's mother. Another sucessful day.

But my nose is still cold!

The car is in for MoT tomorrow!

Visit to the Centre

I have just been to the Centre of Milton Keynes.

Not terribly interesting I hear you say people go to the centre of cities all the time. Yes, but this was with a purpose other than shopping!

I joined other interesting stakeholders to examine and work on the 357 responses that Canal and River Trust received in their recent SE MOORINGS CONSULTATION. 357 responses is quite a lot. C&RT told us that approx 8000 boats visit the SE waterways each year so that is a good proportion. In respect to "for or against" C&RT reported a 50-50 result!

There was a great deal of boating experience and opinion in the room this afternoon to examine proposals for Oxford, Banbury, Foxton and Thrupp. Another workshop is being held on Thursday to look at four locations on the GU south. Hopefully a sensible boating solution will be implemented to solve the "problem" of increasing boat numbers.

All agreed that the essence of visitor moorings management is enforcement of the rules, not new rules for the sake of it.

(Stealth) Mooring Fee Increase

Those of you with a long memory will know that in September I posted to let you know that I wrote to Canal and River Trust about this issue.

Today I got a reply.

The reply was written yesterday, 59 working days after the date of my letter.

Apart from confirming the facts the reply did not address my concerns at all.

I have asked, for the second time, for the complaint to be elevated to "the second level".

How do you think I will get on?

Mooring stealth fee increases

We have a new moorer on our site. Temporarily their brand new craft is moored on a short term one month permit while they take part in the latest mooring berth auction. CaRT know that they need a local mooring and have all their details.

The latest Vacancy issued, Vacancy 4229, is as large as they come on the South Oxford and has a Reserve to match of £1607. This works out at £73.05 per metre. The level of this surprised me so I have done a little research.

When I bid for my mooring in August 2010 the Reserve was £59.61 per metre. Hence there has been an increase in what the site says "The Reserve Price reflects British Waterways' cost of providing the vacancy. It is the price below which it would not be economic for us to let the vacancy" of 22.5%. Inflation over the same period was 5.2% per year according to the Bank of England so the reserve has increased by double the rate of inflation.

I have written to CaRT to ask them to examine the basis of the Reserve. I think it is to maximise revenue as they know that there is a demand for the mooring at this time. Historically there hasn't been. A third of the Vacancies auctioned on this site since Jan 2010 have resulted in no-one bidding for them.

We will see how we get on.