Stay over 14 days but pay £25 a day

Waterways News Snippits

• Boat owners made to tow the line

But now, according to the posters along the tow-path, boat-owners are told to keep moving to the next "locality" - and they will be fined £25 for every day they stay in one place beyond the two-week limit.

I wonder who is going to collect this money. Once again this is an impossible situation that British Waterways cannot deal with. I know when we were in the Bathampton and Bath area during January and February of this year we saw for ourselves the problems there. It was very difficult for us to moor. It seemed the whole of the towpath away from the 48 hr moorings were crammed pack full boats, some were unlicensed and some just left there unoccupied. I doubt the £25 fine will be paid. Anyway, what will BW do if the fines go unpaid? I can't see them taking a crane and lorry transporter along the towpath to haul the boats out of the water somehow.

Eugene Baston from BW says the reason is simple: "If we had a bigger canal network, perhaps there would be more room for everyone, but we've only got 2,000 miles of water and that means there's limited space. And the number of boats is increasing every year."

Limited space?? There is plenty of space on the system!

But some dwellers are incensed by new regulations. They claim that having to move their vessels every fortnight will make boat-owning so difficult that many people will be forced back onto dry land.

Well the regulations aren't exactly new. I can't see how moving a boat makes owning one so difficult.... unless of course they work in the area, in which case they should really have a residential mooring.... BW do you provide residential moorings in the Bath area??

"They're putting holiday-makers before the permanent residents," says Sam. (a boat owner)

"They just want to get us to buy permanent moorings, but that would cost me £2,000 a year - and there's no way I can afford it."

Sam and her fellow moorers claim a centuries-old tradition of people living on waterways, but now 'rules' have been put in place to follow. Lets face it, it's much easier now that BW have lifted the 'must travel a set number of lock miles every 14 days' to the much easier 'must move to a new neighbourhood every 14 days'.

The situation has led British Waterways to clamp down. In the past it admits that it has been quite relaxed about the regulations.

Of course BW has been quite relaxed. That is because it has not been able to do anything about it.... I wonder why they think they can now?