Be careful what you wish for

A Response to David Hymers—be careful what you wish for. At first glance David Hymers suggestion that mooring licences be dropped by CaRT in favour of an increase in the cost of cruising licences might seem a good idea, writes Pete Earley.

A good idea in that us boaters with no home mooring will pay more—so we would no longer be ‘getting away' with it as David puts it. But, has he thought what this increase might be.

Average mooring fee

Assuming David sitting in his marina is paying the average mooring fee of £2000 then about £180 of that will go to CaRT in the form of access fees. (9% of the nominal mooring charge) Unfortunately, the accounts produced by British Waterways don't tell us how much was collected in access fees, it is included in the heading ‘Maintenance and other income'.

They do tell us though those 5276 mooring permits were issued netting them £5.9m. Presumably these are the EOG and on-line moorings. They also tell us that 34683 boats were licenced and that 4400 boats had no home mooring. This gives us 25000 other boats. Some of these will be moored on non-British Waterways waters so let us assume 24000 boats are moored in marinas and are paying this £180 access fee. That gives us another £50m. A total of £109m. Spreading this across our total of 34683 boats would give us a £314 increase in licence fee.

An increase

Now, I would pay that extra if it stopped whingeing that we are getting something for nothing but David's marina charge will only reduce by £180. (Actually it should be more like £200 as it is subject to VAT) against which he will be paying CaRT £314, an increase of £114. Is this what he really wants?

In a follow up article, John Kerley states ‘it has always puzzled me that those who use the canal system the most, continuous cruisers, are those who pay the least'. If he means we make greater use of water taps and refuse disposal facilities then he is correct. If he means we are inflicting greater wear and tear on locks and bridges then I feel he is wrong. My diary—yes, I do keep a log of our movement. Records I've actually travelled about 500 miles. I would venture that the majority of summer only cruisers and all share boats have travelled far more than that.

During that time I have moored for short periods in three private marinas, one BWML marina and one directly managed British Waterways mooring site at a total cost of far more than £314.

So what, exactly, am I getting away with?