Boating council rep meeting with crt

CRT COUNCIL BOATING REPS
MEETING NOTE
25 April 2016

Present: Mike Grimes, Gareth Stephens, Matthew Symonds, Roger Hanbury (CRT), Stella
Ridgway, Vaughan Welch, Andrew Phasey, Andrew Tidy, Nigel Hamilton, Phil Prettyman

MS welcomed everyone to the meeting and MG set out how the boating team meet regularly with
boating organisations, boaters, and are keen to meet regularly with the CRT Council boating reps
to hear their issue, ideas, and views on a range of boating related subjects.

There was a brief but wide ranging discussion on a diverse range of issues of interest to the
boating reps. Issues discussed included,

 The aging demographics of boaters and what plans CRT have to encourage families and
younger people to take up boating
 The issue of the ‘end of life’ of a growing number of older boats and the potential
implications of tighter European legislation on older more polluting engines
 The contribution CRT can make in terms of data to the national boating tourism strategy
that is being developed by British Marine
 The lack of availability of marine finance to help people buy a boat
 The number of boats on CRT waterways, the potential implication of growth and whether
there is a maximum capacity for the canals
 The number of boats on London’s waterways
 Unpowered craft using tunnels
 The current and required number of facilities for boaters on the network
 Praise for the Boating Buddies scheme and the success in helping get CRT office staff out
on the waters.
 Contacting CRT customer service and the expected response times
 CRTs approach to licensing simplification
 Stoppage notices and the use of acronyms in these (for example CSF = customer service
facility
 The use of ‘welcome aboard’ to improve customer service in the leisure industry and how
this could help CRT improve customer service
 Volunteer training and the CRT Friends scheme and how this could be extended to boaters
 Ensuring fair and legal trading on the towpath and how CRT is approaching unauthorised
business boats
 How CRT council members might engage with their electorate
 The enforcement approach and the impact on continuous cruisers who don’t move enough.
 The reported difficulties that parents and young people were having, particularly those with
children trying to remain compliant
 CRTs response to unauthorised trading boats. On the towpath

CRT actions from the meeting

1. MS to talk to HC re strategic planning to increase boat numbers.

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2. MG/MS to look into how CRT might share data to support the national boating tourism
strategy.
3. MS/MG to follow up Tony Stammer re the approach to unpowered boats in tunnels.
4. MS to follow with DL services review and find if the previous report had fed into the work
being undertaken by Debbi Lumb on customer service facilities
5. MS to circulate a summary of the Boat Owners Views survey when analysis of the
responses are completed.
6. GS/MS to clarify how hire boat operators can get hold of additional copies of Boaters
Guide.
7. MS to circulate a summary of the London Mooring Strategy project for information.

The boating team will meet with Council boating reps quarterly, future meetings will be
scheduled for July, October and January.
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There are several points in the notes that need clarification.
The older boats and engines, along with the ref to European legislation on pollution.

The mention of restrictions on boat numbers (which seems to be at odds with attracting new ownership).

What crt define as unauthorised business boats.

It all seems to me a bit unorganised, again maybe just looking to develop problems to solve.
They don't in my view seem to have any real direction, and this probably comes from not having any real knowledge on their business, maintaining a navigation.
I suspect it's just the senior management keeping the council busy and distracted, whilst the Crt drive forward with their agenda.

Unfortunately some people don't seem to be able to accept that Crt have an agenda. Its funny that it's anybody who has had dealings with the managment that are concerned about the direction they are heading.