The Bargees' big con

THE big con indeed. The Bargees Association is getting gullible people to sign its petition that its boater members are being 'illegally removed from their homes', and that Canal & River Trust is 'pressuring boat families into homelessness', when it is doing nothing of the sort.

The petition entitled 'Boats are homes! Prevent the eviction of boat dwellers' and its content was especially worded for the gullible to believe that these boaters were fully entitled to live on their boats without moving, yet these self-same boaters had signed a licence declaration that they would continuously cruise, to prevent having to pay for a permanent mooring. But they have no intention of cruising, attempting instead to convince people by their petition that doing so will make them homeless.

Work of fiction

We are told the petition has reached 17,000, but as these people are rather good at hijacking petitions—they hijacked the one in narrowboatworld that was not to their favour, which suddenly clocked an outrageous number to push up the poll to promote its own interests—we have our doubts about that number, especially as the 'target' is 20,000, which of course it will see that it will reach...

The whole campaign is about boaters wanting to stay in one place, on prime moorings, without paying to do so, that is creating little more than linear water-borne caravan parks in major cities.

If you cannot afford to buy a house and run it—you don't buy one.  If you cannot afford to buy a boat and run it—you don't buy one.  Yet the Bargees openly state that its members cannot afford to 'run' a boat as they can't afford the cost of a permanent mooring. They therefore obtain a continuous cruiser licence, meaning they then don't have to afford such a mooring, but then 'forget' they have agreed to continuously cruise, pleading instead that Canal & river Trust is making them homeless!

Acting illegally

The fact that it members openly state they have work locally and have children at a local school, shows they have absolutely no intention of fulfilling their agreement to continuously cruise—so are obviously acting illegally.

It is not CaRT that is 'pressuring boat families into homelessness', but the boaters themselves that are making themselves homeless—that really, they should make clear in their excuse of a petition.

They have the choice of this cheap 'housing', to continuously cruise to fulfil their obligations, or, should they not want to cruise, then pay for a mooring like the majority of the rest of us.

It is that simple.