News from the Fens—Summer Autumn

AS AUGUST slipped into September and through October the mild weather continued with only the odd days of gale force winds and rain. Temperatures remained above normal for the time of year. In effect the Fens did not really have an Autumn.

This all changed when November arrived, when the weather broke with a vengeance, with the monsoon conditions proving to be an interesting time for boaters in East Anglia.  The night time temperatures did not start to fall until mid November, much to the relief of Tom our local coal merchant, who had been having a lean time of it with few coal sales due to the mild weather.

Set alight

At the end of July, a narrowboat was set alight after the engine and other major items had been remove beforehand. The boat later sank and was quickly removed by the Middle Level Commissioners. The boat was uninsured and had been required by the Middle Level Commissioners to be removed from the Middle Level after its permission to be on the Middle Levels had automatically been revoked when the owner failed to comply with the three requirements to keep a boat on the water.

Firstly, the boat did not have a valid permanent mooring. Secondly no insurance cover for 3rd party and savage. Thirdly a valid Boat Safety Certificate (Status unknown). The owner had also been antisocially overstaying on the visitor moorings for months. Had the boat been a motor vehicle on the Queen's highways it would have been confiscated on sight and the owner carted off to the cells.

If the navigation authorities had the same draconian powers as the highway authorities and the police to deal with the rule breakers, the antisocial lawbreaker boaters would soon disappear. The full story of the fire was covered in narrowboatworld along with the reply from the Middle Level Commissioners to the the owner's wild claims. Shortly after the reply was published, the burnout boat owner and his two pals started bombarding narrowboatworld with emails demanding the Middle Level Commissioners reply be removed. [It was not.]

There are two sides to every story. So it is correct to publish both, but the owner and his pals only wanted published 'their side' of the story. Do they have something to hide? What are they worried about? As to the boat, it is still in the Middle Level Yard.

Aggressive racing

Towpath terrorism is not a problem that we have in the Fens apart from along Ely riverside and the Cam in Cambridge, but I am saddened by the complete disregard shown to pedestrians by my fellow cyclists, and not just a few, but many with a palpable sense of aggressive, entitlement, racing at high speed

Many with no sense of self-awareness nor risk awareness. Over the last few years I have watched the increase in cycling on towpaths, watched the increase in conflict between towpath users, and watched CaRT and Sustrans stick their head in the sand (or gravel), and fail to do anything meaningful about it. I do wonder where it will end? There is only one place for a cyclist and that is on the Queen's highway. It is no way as dangerous as Sustrans or any other pavement cycling groups make out. I have logged over 200,000 miles on all types of roads and traffic and have yet to have a crash with a motor vehicle.

Towpath riding at speed is dangerous, as this video clip taken from the headcam of a Manchester based towpath terrorist shows.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0s6S3QzBjZc

Refusing to pay licences

At Hartford Marina on the Great Ouse, a group of houseboat owners are refusing to pay their licences to the Environment Agency. The owners claim that their houseboats are not capable of navigation and that the rules do not apply to private marinas. It should be pointed out that the owners were charged the reduce houseboat rate and not the full navigation rate.

Any houseboat is capable of navigation either by towing or sticking an outboard motor on the back. Only the other year a houseboat was moved from Bill Fen Marina to Upwell by just fixing an outboard to the stern with a long pole up to the roof to steer. Not forgetting also the floating shed, runner up in the 'Shed of the Year'. And only last month the floating beach hut on George Clarke's Amazing Spaces.

Antisocial boaters moved

On Ely riverside in September, new draconian mooring rules were introduced by the local council to deal with the major problem of overstaying by a small group of antisocial boaters who think they are above the rules. Since September the maximum stay is 48 hours with no return within 48 hours.

Break theses rules you will be fined £100 per day or part of. Since the new rules came in, overstaying has ceased to be a problem. As the picture of Ely riverside over half term shows.

Kelvin Alexander Duggan