What Can I Do Next?

[bednobs]

Hi, i live near a canal. the moorings on the canal are for 14 days only, then people have to move on. However, people take the mick and stay there far longer than this, seemingly with impunity. There is an enforcement officer from the canal and rivers trust, who doesn't seem to do any enforcing, who i have been in touch with many times. The people who moor there benefit from all the amenities that other people who live nearby do (fire, police, ambulance, putting their rubbish in the public bins an so on) but don't have to pay council tax like i do for the privilege.
One person has been there for 11 months now, and another person is living on a non-residential mooring, and claims he doesn't when anyone inquires (despite his car being there most nights, lights being on and his cat being on the boat) There are around 5 other boats who have been there for the order of months rather than days too
I have tried talking to them (not surprisingly got hostile replies) spoken to the enforcement officer on seven seperate occasions (only comes during day so living there man is out at work so can't prove he's living there and officer tells me he can't do anything about 11 months man because he's not licensed) Been to the local authority (council) who are not interested, parish council (who supposedly wrote a letter to c&r trust but no action has occurred). What next?
I know i could just not care, but unfortunately the consequences of not caring are unappealing to me. Can anyone recommend who i could go to next, or who to approach or what steps to take
Thanks

[woofgang]

"to those people who say "why do you care" i look at it like this: If travelers came and camped on a field near you, used the local amenities without contributing anything wouldn't you be cross and want to do something about it? If someone built a house at the bottom of their garden without Planning permission wouldn't you want to do something?"

Bednobs, this is the question that I was answering and no, if they weren't affecting me and were keeping the place clean and tidy then I honestly wouldn't care. Our local planning department are a bunch of kn0bs and most of the council tax that i pay goes to fund facilities that i don't need or use, so provided that the field owner didn't care then i wouldn't either. If they are making the area dirty and preventing your friends from mooring they i get why you want to intervene but I wouldn't feel the need to uphold a principle.

[humbersloop]

I'm either staggered or puzzled by the enforcement officer's attitude bednobs, which sounds like he can't be asked to me and, imo, he's talking shyte.

Firstly though, enforcement on the canal itself is highly unlikely to be anything to do with the local authority or the parish council. Local authority licencing is usually restricted to things like plying for hire or otherwise running a business, so you're probably wasting time there other than gathering a bit of extra support.

Depending on the relevant waterway authority with jurisdiction over your canal - and the not very helpful CRT presence suggests it's them - not having a licence where required is, in itself, usually a prosecutable offence that they'd normally be down on like a ton of bricks with an initial enforcement notice, which says get one, or go, or we'll move you off our patch. They can also impound vessels if they see fit.

Rivers and canals also certainly have their own individual navigation by-laws, so it might be worth checking them out in detail for yours. Some do have conditions universally applicable to moorings, privately owned or not.

I'm surmising here, but if the boater has no licence, they're also unlikely to have a Boat Safety Certificate - which is usually a specific requirement to use many waterways - and possibly no insurance. Both of which are taken very seriously - around here anyway. Several people a year get killed by moored boat explosions of one cause or another, and passers by are also at risk.

Basically, if any of the relevant waterways authorities want to find a way to either get aboard your vessel on safety grounds (suspicion of dodgy gas bottles, discharging waste directly) or make you shift it, they really do have the means to do so, or to make the moorings' owner's life quite difficult until its gone.

At the moment I suggest, if you haven't already done so, you speak directly to the CRT's central licencing team and see if you get any more joy there.

I'd be interested to know the outcome.

[bednobs]

thanks humbersloop - i will try to remember to get back to you, i appreciate everyone's time

[humbersloop]

pleasure bedknobs, good luck with it, though you might be in for a long haul.

I can drop you gmail on the throwaway you left earlier if you like

[bednobs]

thanks

[lcg]

keep untying his boat in the middle of the night - i'd do it out of sheer bloody mindedness! :)

[bednobs]

it's certainly tempting. however, i fear i'll be the one to get into trouble when it should be them

[humbersloop]

noooo bedknobs!! do.not. do. that.

It's seen as about the lowest thing you could do, plus it'd get you in to a lot of trouble

[humbersloop]

*meant bednobs, sorry

gmail on its way

[bednobs]

tya

[lcg]

i'd still do it......fcuk the consequences!

[bednobs]

unfortunately both me and husband need enhanced crb's for our jobs and i think our employers would take a dim view of criminal damage and or affray :)

[bednobs]

also having once have to rescue my friends boat fromt he middle of the canal once, it's rather dangerous and tricky

[waterboatman]

bednobs. You need to get in touch with River and Canal trust head office and report the warden. He is not doing his job. The unlicenced boats can be seized and impounded. The licenced boats can be ordered to move after paying up.

[albaqwerty]

Bednobs, have you done anything? Any news?