Whyatt in trouble

WITHIN hours of Canal & River Trust (CaRT) publishing a report following its South East Visitor Moorings Consultation, (Mooring consultation report) one of its authors has been brought to book on a Facebook site, writes Allan Richards.

A post by Steve Jay on the Cowley and Uxbridge Boaters (CUB) Facebook site, refers to CaRT Waterways Manager Jeff Whyatt's claim that he consistently receives complaints regarding congestion at visitor moorings by saying 'He is telling lies again'.

The post

Steve Jay, has been a key figure in the consultation and also in exploratory talks concerning the possible introduction of Roving Mooring permits in the Cowley and Uxbridge area. His hard hitting post states:

'CANAL & River Trust has today (Friday) published its final report on the public consultation on visitor moorings in the South East. It reports that although it only related to 22 out of 130 or so visitor mooring sites across the South East it has been a challenging, yet ultimately rewarding, few months as Jeff Whyatt, Senior Waterway Manager, explains:

Consistent complaints

'Over the last few years, one of the most consistent complaints made to me has been about the congestion at visitor moorings. The mooring rules haven't been reviewed in a long time and after a 40% increase in the last 10 years or so in boat numbers to 35,000, it felt like now was the right time to update the mooring rules at some the most popular sites across the south east. From the start it was perfectly clear that not all boaters agreed with our plans. The great thing was to see boaters with different ideas come around a table and discuss the issues and debate the plans for each site. A big thank you to all those who responded and especially to those who disagreed with us but were willing to give up their own time to help.'

A similar but slightly more moderate post on Canal World Discussion Forum accuses Whyatt of telling 'Fibs'.

Is he stating the facts?

So is Jeff Whyatt not telling the truth? One suspects any attempt by this boater to say outright that he is would be met with the editor's electronic blue pencil. However, what can perhaps be said is that Jeff Whyatt's statement relating to the consultation appears to be deliberately misleading and not backed up by information freely available and in the public domain.

Let us take the main claim that Jeff Whyatt makes 'Over the last few years, one of the most consistent complaints made to me has been about the congestion at visitor moorings....'

Completely untrue

At face value this is untrue. Regular narrowboatworld readers will recall that CaRT's Head of Boating, Sally Ash, made a similar claim. Her reticence to back up her claim led to requests being made under the Freedom of Information Act. The 'surprising number of complaints' that Sally Ash claimed had been received turned out to be zero!

That's right, nobody in CaRT (and obviously that includes Jeff Whyatt) had received a complaint during 2011 or 2012 regarding difficulty in finding a mooring.

Furthermore, examination of a further 50 documents going back several years has found no evidence of any congestion complaint.

The astounding thing is that Jeff Whyatt has been allowed to (or perhaps told to) make such a statement after CaRT have already admitted that a similar one by Sally Ash is completely untrue.

Justification

One is left with the uneasy feeling that CaRT, and in particular, Sally Ash & Jeff Whyatt are having great difficulty in justifying the changes to mooring time limits and the introduction of a 'no return' rule and fines on the basis of reducing congestion.

Perhaps this is why they have fallen back on statements they know to be untrue.

Sadly, it would have been better to attempt to justify the consultation on the back of social cleansing rather than mooring congestion.
At least it would be more honest!

[The National Association of Boat Owners (NABO) have condemned CaRT's report. NABO's response can be found here—Flawed consultation states NABO)]