NBTA against new rules
THE National Bargee Travellers Association, (NBTA) has accused Canal & River Trust (CaRT) of publishing maps that defy law and geography.
In its Press release the association states that Canal & River Trust has published maps purporting to define 'places' that do not exist for the entire waterway system in an unlawful attempt to prescribe and control the movement of boats licenced without a home mooring.
Widen the definition
The association tells that Section 17(3)(c)(ii) of the British Waterways Act 1995 states that boats must not remain 'continuously in any one place for more than 14 days or such longer period as is reasonable in the circumstances'. The maps, published by CaRT widen the definition of 'place' to encompass multiple towns and villages.
For example, according to CaRT's maps, the villages of Warland, Summit and Calderbrook on the Rochdale Canal no longer exist and have been subsumed into Littleborough, and Wilcot, Honeystreet and the Wide Water on the Kennet & Avon Canal are now all in Woodborough.
Beyond legal powers
The NBTA states that the Trust does not have the legal power to define statutory words in this way. 'Place' is not defined in the 1995 Act. CRT is acting beyond its legal powers in seeking to define where and how far boats should travel, and its definitions of 'place' defy geography. The names and boundaries of places have evolved over centuries. CaRT cannot re-draw the map and expunge hundreds of years of history. This is the action of a totalitarian regime.
Indeed, its move to define 'places' contradicts its own Guidance for Boaters Without a Home Mooring, in which it states that a 'place' can be a village or hamlet, a suburb or district within a town or city, or an uninhabited area; that exact precision is not required or expected, and that it is not possible or appropriate to specify distances that should be travelled. This is despite the fact that CaRT also stated on 14th August that compliance with this Guidance now requires compliance with the maps.
Unlawful erosion
The National Bargee Travellers Association maintains that CaRT's maps of 'places' are an unlawful erosion of the rights of boaters without home moorings to travel freely from place to place after a stay of 14 days in a cruising pattern of their own choice. This puts yet further pressure on live-aboard boater families with children, jobs, medical needs or other reasonable reasons for needing to stay in a closely defined area.
The NBTA has recommended its own limits of movement and 'places'.
Comment:
However, it has always been accepted that a continuous cruiser licence is just that—for boaters that continuous cruise the system, as many do, and can hardly fit in with a boater requiring 'a closely defined area' to stay in a area for family, for work, school and medical reasons, as it seems the above implies. That is hardly continuously cruising.