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At the budget in March, the Chancellor of the Exchequer agreed that boaters can continue to use red diesel with the customary declarations on tax split. The Treasury held a consultation at the end of 2020, and NABO responded as we reported in the October NN. We are delighted that the Treasury have listened to us. NABO has been campaigning on this for more than 20 years! Our persistence has paid off at last.NABO Home
Changes to six month CRT licence requirements.
There has recently been clarification from CRT regarding the distance CRT expects boaters to travel during the term of a six month licence and NABO notes that the guidance has changed. It used to be CRT’s policy that boaters issued with a reduced licence were still expected to cruise the 20 mile plus range that full licence holders are expected to do and indeed this is what NABO advised its members. CRT has now confirmed that this has changed and that boaters who have been issued with a six month licence are expected to cruise a pro rata distance of 10 miles (16km) within the time period of their licence.
For more information regarding CRT’s expectations around the issuing of reduced licences, please read on as Matthew Aymes, CRT’s Customer Support Manager has responded very fully to a query raised by CRT Council Boaters Rep Dave da Costa via this email:
National Inland Navigation Forum (NINF) AGM & Meeting: 20th February 2021
A Zoom-based meeting of this valuable forum brought together representatives of NABO, RBOA, CBOA, DBA, TBA, HNBC, IWA, AWCC and the General Secretary, Michael Stimpson.
The meeting agreed to reappoint Michael and thanked him for his valuable work over the past year. The finances were also reported on and with little expenditure on meetings, the financial position is sound. It was agreed to pay towards the cost of the ZOOM facilities being used.
Lockdown blues
Editor, Peter Fellows, has spotted inconsistencies in the way that boaters are being treated.
Despite it being midwinter with a national lockdown in place – or on reflection, perhaps because of this – I’ve received a bountiful crop of contributions for this issue. Clearly, people are thinking about boating even though they are unable to do so. Which raises the question of why has boating been suspended, when being on a moving boat is one of the safest places to be in a pandemic? And if navigation authorities consider fishing to be a legitimate form of exercise, why do they think that boating isn’t? If any of the senior managers who make such decisions had tried to ascend flights of locks on the Rochdale or Huddersfield Narrow – or, for that matter, battled stiff paddles and unyielding gates across the system – they would know that boating certainly is exercise. Instead, liveaboards are forced to moor up, alongside crowded towpaths in some areas, as visitors respond to CRT’s exhortations to exercise by the waterways.
A time of change
A time of change - from navigation authorities to electric boating, Mike Rodd sees a busy year ahead for NABO.
Well, at least we did have some time, pre-Christmas, to get out on our boats before the next full lockdown took over. Ours being down in South Wales means that we are continually caught by the infuriating Cardiff Assembly trying to prove its manhood by doing something slightly different from Westminster – with really silly results for us who live in one area but boat in the other! Of course, we all know how serious all this is, so we just hope that the vaccine will mean that we will soon see a sensible way ahead for all of us.
I would like to start by saying how wonderful it is to see the many new faces on your Council – not just the people who are new to NABO’s Council, but also those who have already been very active within the organisation. This allows us to do even more by way of acting as a prime representative for all boaters. And that is so important right at this moment – with CRT currently undertaking two important ‘so-called’ consultations. (‘So-called’ because so often they seem to be mere formalities, with CRT having pretty well decided the way ahead, but needing to be seen to take user suggestions on board.) In this issue, you will see details regarding the extensive work we have undertaken in preparing our submissions, outlining our major concerns about many aspects of recent consultations. They will have impacts on all of us, so please do read our submissions, as well as our comments on the T&C’s readability.