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Category: NN Chairman's Column
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Getting to know you

Stella Ridgway looks back over five years of engagement with CRT.

As the CRT Annual General Meeting is coming up, I thought I would reflect on the last year and, indeed, the five years since I started attending these AGMs. The Trust started out with Richard Parry going to boaters’ forums, meeting with boaters’ organisations and generally engaging ... and then this engagement evaporated. While Richard still goes to events (I know he attends most Roving Traders’ Events), we in NABO have had a void in formal communications for the last two years. The only engagement is the six-monthly Regional User Forums, the National Advisory Groups (the Licensing NAG was recently disbanded) and the National User Forum. The reorganisation, announced last November, finally came into effect in June and it is proposed that there will be meetings held quarterly around the regions to give us a chance to get to know the new Regional Directors. It is hoped that they will be able to establish best practice with regards to having boaters represented on Regional Advisory Boards. NABO held an initial meeting with Jon Horsfall, the new Head of Customer Service, and has scheduled another meeting for September, so we hope to have met by the time you read this. The focus for this next meeting is ‘working together’, which seems to be a recurring theme at every meeting the Trust has; ‘using boaters’ knowledge’. But if the Trust wants boaters and boating organisations to help, it should acknowledge publicly the assistance and advice provided by NABO, other organisations and the Boaters’ Reps on Council. Boaters give their time and expertise through their representation on NAG and various sub-groups.

Read more: In the Chair September 2018

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Category: NN Editorials
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Consultations, breaches and closures

but Editor, Peter Fellows, also notes some wonderful weather and meaningful meetings

There’s been a lot happening on the waterways since the last NABO News in July. The summer’s weather has allowed marvellous cruising, but the high temperatures and prolonged drought have also caused problems for CRT’s water management. An article by Adam Comerford, CRT’s National Hydrology Manager, explains how the Trust has responded to maintain navigation on the majority of canals in the face of falling reservoir levels.

Read more: NABO News Editorial September 2018

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Category: EA and others
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NABO has responded strongly to the proposal to increase Registrations Charges.

“Whilst we accepted that the above-inflation increases introduced over the past year was acceptable (given that there had not been an increase for some years) we strongly believe that only a direct- inflation-based increase can be introduced across all EA waters. The proposal for continuing the differential figures for the 3 waterways is also not acceptable.

We also suggest that in your Table 2.2 all sources of income should be increased by the same amount and that the boat registration charges should not be expected to carry the load – this is simply wrong and unfair.

We would also like to see how your central costs compare to other similar government agencies.  We are not convinced that your agency is working in the most cost-efficient way when compared to others.”

NABO’s full submission will be available in the next NABO News.

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Category: EA and others
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Boaters on waters controlled by the Environment Agency (EA) are facing well above inflation increases in boat registration fees. The EA are consulting their boating customers and other interested and affected parties on proposals for boat registration charges on Environment Agency waterways for 2019 to 2020 and 2020 to 2021. The charging proposals they are ”consulting” on have already been in the course of preparation for 6 months and have already been approved by The EA Board, the Treasury, DEFRA Minister Therese Coffey and Michael Gove, the Secretary of State. The voice of boaters MUST be heard, however.

Read more: Boaters on EA waterways facing massive increases.