The Spymaster speaks - Not immune

Not immune

And it seems Vaughan's home patch is not immune from his wacky world. Apparently there are unlicenced continuous moorers without boat safety certificates (a contradiction in terms if ever there was one) bending the rules and hiding from officialdom on the BCN.

These  freeloaders, as he calls them, are giving the 180 he says are compliant a bad name.

Then, of course, there is this boaters favourite. The continuous moorers that are preventing others mooring on the pontoons at Stratford-on-Avon. These can be clearly seen from the photo taken a few days ago.

Call for resignation

One boater already fed up with this IWA trustee is Alison Tuck. Alison was the boater (and CaRT volunteer) that organised a petition recently to save a small trader from being evicted by CaRT (Georges is saved—narrowboatworld 15/12/2012).

Commenting on his Navigation article encouraging IWA members to spy on boaters she says: 'I would like to call for his resignation from the CaRT council as I feel that this article is not becoming for a council member who is supposed to represent boaters on the CaRT waterways. It shows ill judgement and discrimination towards a section of the boating community which he represents'.

Boaters talking to CaRT

As one who has been very critical of both British Waterways and CaRT, I am happy to report that over the last couple of months we have seen three meetings with local boaters. These meetings have been arranged by boaters themselves rather than organisations and have enabled the Trust to gain valuable insights regarding the views of  boaters and local issues.

The issues themselves have been wide ranging with the agenda chosen by boaters. Quite obviously, boats without home moorings and overstaying have featured in these discussions if local boaters consider that they are an issue.

Quirk of fate

A quirk of fate has dictated that the next boaters meeting will be in Birmingham, the heart of Vaughan Welch's IWA region.

One wonders if local boaters will consider continuous moorers and overstayers to be an issue in the West Midlands compared with elsewhere.

If not, it will be Vaughan Welch, the IWA spymaster, following his IWA agenda that will be the issue!

[The photo of the pontoons at Stratford-on-Avon devoid of continuous cruisers was taken on Sunday 13th January. Just one private craft was in the basin. The boat was displaying in date CaRT and Avon Navigation Trust licences. Five trading boats were also in the basin. Allan tells us that last year he managed to moor in the basin without problem at Easter and again in June and July. He says that, although the basin can be crowded or even full at peak times, it is generally possible to moor between the bottom lock and basin. Alternatively one can moor on the Avon upon payment of a small charge.]