Richard in the North West - Hogged by continuous cruisers

 

Hogged by continuous cruisers

13. (Brian Flynn) I moor on the Lancaster Canal and one of the problems we face is the
temporary visitor moorings being constantly hogged by continuous cruisers. We have complained and have had meetings with your enforcement team and also have been appalled by the abuse your front-line staff face. I feel that your enforcement managers hide behind data protection and say they aren't able to tell us about any action taken. It seems that no action is being taken about these persistent offenders and this has been going on for years. I also understand there is a proposal to reduce 7 & 14 day moorings to 48hrs only in Lancaster. How do you propose to police this when you can't effectively enforce the existing mooring
times.

I understand your concern, though in fairness to my managers, I will go away and have a discussion as I don't know all the details. In terms of data protection we are very careful about any information regarding individual's details because we know that this could be used to derail any work we may have done. We do have to respect the other parties right to anonymity within the legal process. But I do understand that it must be very frustrating to see a boat that is a persistent offender and not see anything being done about it, even if we are progressing in the background. Whilst we should be able to ensure that all boats move at least every 14 days, we do find it a challenge to enforce the 48hr mooring sites with the resources we have to be effective we need data checkers there every day. In other areas we have done this with the help of volunteers.

CS: Just a quick update on the Lancaster Canal. Our Partnership has established a ‘Lancaster moorings project'. We have got to the point where we are going to install 48hr mooring signs in the most popular locations and also extend some mooring sites so more room is available. Matt Taylor is in the process of advertising for volunteers who will record daily which boats are moored at each site and then send this data to our enforcement staff so they can act on it. Our enforcement officer provides information to our Partnership meetings on how many enforcement actions are being taken in the North West waterway, and at what stage they are at. Our enforcement officer and her line manager both attended the Lancaster Local Waterway Forum for a lively debate on the issues very recently. Hopefully you have some reassurance that things are happening even though we can't tell you the details.

Water levels

14. (unknown) A number of years ago water levels were dropped by around two inches
at East Marton as a result of water management problems and the canal often runs at a further two inches down due to leaks which makes navigation very difficult. What is going to be done about the water levels?

(unknown) I just wanted to agree about the reduced water level. But I would also like to congratulate CaRT on the start that has been made to repair some of the leaks.

CS: I am really pleased that you have noticed some of the repairs that have been undertaken as we have been working closely with our major works repair team and theyhave agreed to allocate an extra £125,000 a year to deal with the worse leaks on this section; this is on top of the budget that we can apply locally. In terms of the technical discussion regarding water levels, we manage our water levels very carefully and we are very proactive in managing this and part of getting Volunteer Lock Keepers and seasonal staff is to help us with this. We will speak to you separately to ensure that the levels for the East Marton area are correct.

Value for money

15. (Ian) I wanted to ask about value for money. How are boaters able to perceive this?
How is it communicated in terms of CaRT's long and short term goals, planned works etc. We need to be told what is happening.

I share you sentiment concerning demonstrating value. We are trying to communicate more effectively about the work we are doing so you can see what we're doing with the funds we have. We have just published our three year business plan and the local plans are due to be published in the near future. In terms of value, it is difficult to compare us with any other canal system so ultimately you have to decide whether or not you think that you are getting value from our management of the network. We are increasingly looking at comparable costs for works where we can find a fair comparison.

Adoption

16. (Jason Fildes) I have been approached to undertake an adoption (at Reedley Marina) and am very happy to get involved. However we need to be empowered to make the changes and we need CaRT to help facilitate this?

CS: Thank you for adopting a stretch of canal. We are looking at how we approach adoptions now that we have signed up a good number of these, and what we have talked about is establishing two phases for potential adoptions. Initially you will sign up and get started on what you are able to do straight away, ie litter picking and general work. Then if the group wants to do more work we will ask for details of this and then make sure that we get environment, heritage and health and safety checks done before the work is agreed. One of our partnership members is looking for a volunteer to help us with this work.

More young people

17. (Ian McCarthy) How are we going to get the average age of this room down? What
is your vision to involve more young people in the canal?

This is a live issue that we are looking at, with our Council members leading some discussion. One of the first steps we have taken has been to set a Youth Advisory group. This will hopefully allow us to generate more connections with young people. Canoeing is potentially a very good way for us to engage with young people as the canal provides a great environment for this. The issue is finding a path to powered boating as this may not be straightforward for young people. We are doing more work with Social action funding and early stage—we hope they will add up to something bigger over time.

Family boating licence

18. (unknown) What about introducing a family boating licence (for small boats) to encourage young families to take the first step into boating?

I think that there is a problem with young people gaining access, as understandably they don't know about it. I do believe that if we don't do something soon we will have a problem with the age of both volunteers and of boaters.Yes we acknowledge it is an issue— though it may be the case that boating is a lifestyle choice that people tend to lean towards later on in life. But also we all need to be very supportive of those first time boaters, many of whom will have their first experience of boating on a hire boat.

Small businesses

19. (Elizabeth) What can you do to help small businesses set up on the canal? As there is too much red tape and it takes too long.

I absolutely agree that we want the canals be a thriving site for businesses, it's great for the waterways and the communities to have this. But there are limits to what we can do to facilitate this as we only have limited land ownership and we also have certain requirements that need to be met by any new businesses on or around the waterway. But that is where we hope that our partnership connections will help. If there are things that we can do I am happy that we should make every effort to do or support them.

All answers by Richard Parry unless otherwise stated.
Other staff present: Chantelle Seaborn (CS), Steve Bergquist, Matt Taylor, Mark Ferris