It's a 'money making' service
HAVING just looked at CaRTs winter moorings page I have to say I'm not impressed. It calls it a service, I call it something else but our esteemed editor would probably not publish it! writes Keith Gudgin.
CaRT have said that it provides winter moorings as a service to continuous cruisers and it is not a money making exercise.
As it says in 'Canal & River Trust policy statement on winter mooring':
'While it generates a small source of income for the Trust, its primary motivation is to offer a service to boaters'.
Figures do not agree
I fail to see this as the figures do not, in my opinion, agree:
A 70ft boat will be charged between £780 and £1620 for a five months stay on a towpath equivalent to a yearly charge of between £1,944 and £3,888.
If it's only a service then why is it priced per foot/per month? To me these are commercial profit making charges and not a 'service'. Very few independent marinas would charge a fee of £3,888 or more per year, mooring only. They would not, in most parts of the country sell it at that price. For example, Mercia Marina on its website state that a 70ft boat, with all the facilities they have in their marina close at hand, would be charged around £3172 per year.
Empty berths
Also, why do CaRT not offer all the empty berths in its BWML controlled marinas for the winter at the same rate as they're charging for towpath moorings? Wouldn't get any takers—I wonder why?
CaRT says 'However the Trust is not obliged to provide winter moorings and it must price them competitively in order to be compliant with competition law'.
One has to ask what competitors they have charging for network wide moorings on the towpath? And what competitors do they have charging for network wide winter moorings on the towpath?
No competition
To be in competition surely means they are offering the same, or very nearly the same, product or service. As they have a virtual monopoly on towpath moorings surely this means they have virtually no competition? How can a monopoly be in breach of competition law when it has no competition? Any solicitors want to offer any help here?
If CaRT want us to believe that this is 'just a service' then in my opinion, it needs to charge a nominal fee of say £10 per month per boat for the five months of winter. That would, in my view, be a proper service.
Not being competitive
It should also satisfy its worries about it being competitive should it not(?). As my dictionary says that being competitive means '..being at least as cheap as or cheaper than competitors'. £10 per month certainly fills the criteria of being cheaper than any competitors they have, real or imaginary, does it not? Someone needs to tell CaRT that charging more than others is not being competitive.
At this point I advise anyone thinking of taking a winter mooring to look at the independent marinas first, you might save yourself a lot of money and have better facilities all winter.
Can close the network
I think that CaRT just want to charge us all an excessive amount to sit still over the winter so it can close the network as it wants when it wants without having to worry about boats going through the work sites. If it wants us all to stay put then it has not got to cost us any more than it would if we moved, i.e. fuel costs etc. My fuel costs for moving around last winter were about £30. I would pay a charge of £50 for the whole winter as long as I could choose the spot I wanted to stay, within reason of course.
As it stands I for one will not be paying CaRT's excessive charges just to sit on a towpath for five months with, in the main, no facilities near at hand when I can sit out the winter on the towpath in carefully selected spots for 14 days at a time free and, generally, have facilities close by, and I don't just mean water/rubbish/Elsan type facilities either but also shops, pubs etc.
Carry on cruising
I could do a lot with what they want to charge me and it won't cost me anything like that to keep moving throughout the winter even if it is inconvenient for CaRT.
When it brings it fees down to a reasonable price then I might think about it but in the meantime I'm just going to enjoy my legal right to 'Carry on Cruising'.