Fat boat owners what action do we take?

I have a problem with those consultations when I hear of widebeam owners who attempted to get tickets, were told it was full but found out later that the session was not full.
There does seem to be some indication of CRT preference in who got tickets and who didn't.

I understand the way it can be looked at by narrowboat owners, that widebeams are bigger and should pay more (a bit like the old "Thames tonnage" method of charging.
However I would put forward the counter argument that some of the oldest (and high maintenance ?) canals that absorb a lot of the total maintenance costs are, in effect, being subsidised by widebeam owners who are unable to access those waterways.

There are plenty of arguments both ways ...... there is also the problem of traditional ex working widebeam vessels.  The ramping up of the fees for some of these historic vessels could possibly cause their scrapping. 
The maintenance costs of a 50, 60 or 70 year old boat are extremely high if they are not allowed to deteriorate and there are only a limited number of enthusiasts prepared to put in the time, effort and finances required.

At the start of these "consultations" it was said that it would be cost "neutral"   but it is not, it is a major price hike

So you would be in favour of dismantling the network and privatisation of individual canals and/or regions then ?

I assume this is what happens in future and it -might- be to the benefit of people with wide boats except that someone might notice the only reason people have wide boats is for living on and if someone is living on a boat then that presents a valid reason to charge them accommodation fees. accomodation always costs money (almost always). If it was legal to live in buses by roads in high house price areas people would do it. But it isn't so they don't. The cut is the last hiding place. Not for much longer.

[
No I'm not in favour of the network being broken up, it was a facetious comment. I'm also not in Favour of paying a surcharge for being able to use less of the network, but I don't have much choice at the moment.
Would you like to point out which people are "hiding" I'm not hiding from anything or anyone. I'm doing what I am legally entitled to do i.e. Living on a boat on the inland waterways. You keep putting forward this view that people are hiding from something or getting away with something.
I would suggest to you it is this kind of point of view that is the problem.

Surely the whole point of CRT is to fail financially so this is a great opportunity to help out a bit in that respect.

I'm aware of that kris. I have a long term interest in being able to live on the cut "off grid" in the future. My prediction is that this will become impossible fairly soon due too abuse.

Simple. Opinion. Time will tell.

It is irritating that they seem incapable of dealing with something they recognize as a problem (London for example) but invent problems that don't exist to excuse price hikes.

The stated aim was to 'simplify the licensing system that has not been changed for twenty years'.

Hands up anyone who thinks the new proposals are simpler?

Rog

I agree it's not very nice to ruin an innocent foreigner's trip. On the other if a couple of dozen unwashed rocked up outside CRT head office with banners and the guy with the biggest cojones shouts 'what do we want?' and the rest of the unwashed shout 'equality for fat boats', then, 'when do we want it?', 'now!' reply the masses, repeated until everyone gets bored and goes home, nothing will come of it. CRT would probably acknowledge the protest then do zilch about it. The only way anything can be achieved is by more positive, or negative if you like, action.

History is littered with examples of the abject failure of peaceful, or minimal, protests. On the other hand Mandela & co. succeeded in changing the constitution and forcing the resignation of the sitting government of their country not by waving a few banners, but by unswerving dedication to the cause, along with terrorist acts. Power sharing in Northern Ireland would never had happened if Republican protests had been limited to a bunch of lesbians making a load of noise outside an office building.

 So while nobody in their right mind would set out to murder innocent children in the relatively unimportant cause of avoiding higher licence fees for fat boats, those with strong feelings about it will need to up the anti in order to have any chance of changing anything.