I've just finished reading the report of an independent survey commissioned by Canal and River Trust, one in which I sent in my views along with 4000 odd other boaters some months back. I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I wouldn't want to be the new chief exec of CRT having to sort this lot out.
In a nutshell,
1. Half of boaters think CRT is too zealous with licence and overstay enforcement and the other half think they are too lax
2. Every type of boater (those with home moorings, continuous cruisers, narrowboaters, widebeamers) think that what they pay is unfair compared with the other types
3. People want licencing to be less complicated but they agree that CRT should move away from to variable rates to reflect the circumstances of different types of user
3. Everyone wants CRT to spend more on canal upkeep but everyone wants licences to be cheaper
4. Liveaboards want more moorings and facilities in urban areas and to be able to stay longer in one place but leisure boaters are annoyed with overstayers clogging up visitor moorings..
and so on.
This is all nothing new of course. Another example of consultants being paid to tell organisations what they already know. Clearly whatever CRT does next will upset half the boaters. We await their response with interest.
In other news, we are back aboard Herbie for a few days with some jobs to do. More on thet in the coming days. We are no longer sealed off from the canal but can't go anywhere because all the locks are shut. Ship's cat Gertie seems to be enjoying it though. Home from home.
2 comments:
What I notice about feedback to CRT is at times a strong lack of understanding of their circumstances - and the way they are not the architects of what has befallen them: the government turning them into a charitable trust and lessening funding each year, the drive to outsourcing which has NEVER resulted in money saved, and that the different boating communities have different needs and desires and all want to be paying less to get more essentially.
I applaud CRT actually taking on a consultation process - they know it's a hiding to nothing, where no one is happy! Better just to do what they think will provide the most support and upkeep for the canals themselves and let people indulge their favourite pastime of complaining...
Yours, grumpily, an ex-boater...
Agreed
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