Sadly, the AGM of the River Thames Alliance (RTA) held at Marlowe on Tuesday 26^th July 2016, was poorly attended – the result of the holiday season and a difficult-to-find venue? This meeting had the important objective of reviewing the proposed constitution of the new governance structure of the Alliance, which will see it become a Company Limited by Guarantee.

Unfortunately several members of the RTA, including NABO, were very unhappy about the proposed Memorandum and Articles of the Company, especially the appointment and role of its Directors. The result was that the Management Committee of the RTA were asked to revise the proposals and seek relevant legal advice before re-submitting them to members for approval.

Reports from the sub-groups developing work plans to support the Thames Waterway Plan (agreed at the EGM held in December 2015) illustrated that in some areas much progress was being made, including some highly innovative concepts relating to flood alleviation. Of particular interest also was the work of the Navigation and Mooring sub-group on trying to understand the problems relating to residential boating on the Thames. Here RBOA announced a programme they were undertaking on the Thames setting out to fully understand the issues relating to residential boating and especially trying to obtain hard data about all aspects of this – it was felt that the present data on this is virtually non-existent.

Acceptance of the RTA’s Financial Report had to be held over as details of expenditure had not been made available to members before the meeting.

Finally, 11 members were elected to the Management Committee, and it was agreed that an additional member would be co-opted with expertise in financial and legal matters. The Chairman, John Edmonds, also announced his intention of standing down later in the year.

Mike Rodd