British Waterways shock to our Licence Fee!

Continuous cruisers (boats that have no home mooring)

That’s us.. According to BW we are bracketed along with another 1,359 other continuous cruisers whose Licence fees will be rising by a massive 127% over the next two years.  No that isnt a typo, up 127%.  That is just under 2.5 TIMES the amount we are paying at the moment!

British Waterways have decided that 1,360 boats without a ‘home mooring’ are using and abusing the system more than those who do have one.  We cause more maintenance, more wash, more damage to locks..

1. These boats also have a higher intensity of use. BW’s 2004 boat owners’ survey
     indicated that they cruise on average for 177 days per year, which is significantly 
     more than that of a hire boat. The case for the higher rate is therefore strong on 
     cost impact grounds.

 2.  In terms of willingness to pay, there is evidence from the same survey that the
      typical household income of continuous cruisers is significantly lower than that of 
      boaters with home moorings and this might suggest a lower ability to pay. On the 
      other hand, since the boat is frequently the primary residence, the licence fee is a 
      component of housing cost and as such, likely to be subject to different price 
      considerations. In particular, an individual’s willingness to pay for housing is 
      generally substantially higher his willingness to pay for leisure boating

This bit is from the Proposal Document

Of course we probably do cruise more days than a hire boat, well we would.. but we probably average less than 2 hours a day moving on the waterways, I haven’t worked it out yet.  We cause no wash as we travel so slowly, and no damage to locks, banks etc, so are very cost effective on BW Maintenance budgets.  As a plus, being on the waterways all the time, we are extra eyes and ears for BW phoning in problems if we see them..

I don’t understand the reasoning yet, I have to study the Proposals which you can have a look at in full here, click on the link near the bottom.  There is also a Response Form to print out.  I had a quick look at that, and it seems to me it’s asking the wrong sort of questions

There are arguments going on all over the internet on newsgroups and websites, I am not one for expressing an opinion then get abused so I won’t be joining in.. but I have made contact with an action group called The Continuous Cruisers Action Group  and phoned them on 07985 005 478 where I spoke to a lady called Sarah who has asked me to write to BW as well as use the form.  She has also asked me to spread the word, by phone, snail mail, email, websites… anything… so I am