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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
Canals and transatlantic slavery
In spring 2020, the Black Lives Matter movement spurred CRT into commissioning Dr Jodie Matthews, Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Huddersfield, to undertake literature research into people who had made their wealth through the slave trade and invested the profits in canal building. She also investigated canals that were built specifically to carry goods derived from the exploitation of slaves – especially tobacco, cotton and sugar – and how these canals led to the development of cities such as Liverpool, Bristol and Manchester. Examples cited in the review are: 1) Moses Benson, a Liverpool slave-trader, who owned a ‘palace mansion’ in the city and invested in canals, leaving 230 shares in the Lancaster Canal in his will; 2) Lowbridge Bright was a wealthy Bristol West India merchant who sat on the Committee of the Thames and Severn Canal Company; 3) George Hyde Clarke, who inherited a sugar estate and 220 enslaved people, was a promoter, shareholder and committee member of the Peak Forest Canal Company; 4) Robert Milligan was a prominent Scottish merchant and slave-owner, who was the driving force behind the construction of the West India Docks in London.
The review can be found at https://canalrivertrust.org.uk > search ‘transatlantic slavery’.
Urgent: CRT licence terms and conditions
Updated 30 November 2020
You should have recently received an email from CRT with a link to a consultation for a proposal to further change the licence terms and conditions. We encourage you to complete the consultation. If you do not have the CRT email, the web page can be found here. It is now time to have your say. The consultation closes on 21 December 2020.
Your recent AGM and Council meeting reviewed the consultation and is now drafting the Associaiton's formal response. We have the benefit of legal advice. In general whilst Council is sympathetic with CRTs needs to manage its waterways, we are concerned that wording is one sided, not proportional and attempts to take powers not granted to it in the relevant Acts.
We have the following concerns:
A most unusual, but rewarding, year
Chairman’s Report to the AGM 2020
Mike Rodd reflects on his last twelve months in the Chair.
Having resumed as Chair once again when Stella had to stand down, I am delighted that she has made such excellent progress health-wise. She has, however, had to move back on land and give up her boat, so I guess I am ‘it’ for a while. But my task is made so much easier by having such active and fully engaged colleagues, both on the Council and also as our Regional Representatives. And what a year this has proved to be – not just through the Covid lockdowns, but with both CRT and the EA clearly getting themselves geared up for a future in which they will have to bid for Government funding, by making extensive internal changes and very significant operational modifications.
Boating during lockdown
At our last Council meeting, I was asked to give some guidance to boaters on the present virus situation, in which, at the time of writing, England is in lockdown. Previously, there have been different levels, depending on your area, with England having a Tier 1, 2 or 3 level of precaution and Wales in total lockdown. Where there is an obligation to move as a continuous cruiser, for example, we come to its complications as follows: a Tier 2 lockdown states: ‘Journeys should be limited where possible, but you can still travel to go to the shops, work and hospitality places that are permitted to open. This also applies in a Tier 3 lockdown. CRT has made allowances for this. There are other factors: a boater may be self-isolating because of his or her vulnerability to the virus. Or you may have come into contact with a person suspected of having the virus and again having to self-isolate. There have been emails sent to boaters for not moving far enough, saying that, due to the present situation, no further action will be taken. I would suggest that if you receive one of these emails, you contact CRT to make sure that it’s not on any record that could lead to issues at a later date, such as a restricted licence. I would stress that you should be aware of your area’s level of lockdown. If you need help or are isolating, you should make your respective welfare and support officer aware at the earliest opportunity. If there are any problems, you are welcome to contact me for guidance.
Ken Hylins