JennyMorgan

Enchantress does get about! Last I heard of her, several years ago, she was in the Cambridge area.

Ray, if you don't mind me asking, where did you pick that 50% salaries figure up from? As you probably realize there is a BA involvement!

http://www.lowestoftjournal.co.uk/news/two-men-rescued-suffering-from-hypothermia-after-boat-breaks-down-on-river-waveney-1-5299516

Obviously being built to sell on later, got to jack up the price/investment!

Ray, that's not to say that it doesn't do some good work but knowing something of the history & personalities involved I do have some misgivings. However that's for folks to decide for themselves, as I say, some good work has been done.

http://www.edp24.co.uk/business/broads-boatyard-launches-luxury-picnic-boat-as-it-experiences-growth-in-sales-1-5300956

They also have a Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/LoveTheBroads/ For what will be obvious reasons I have mixed feelings about it!

I rather suspect the Dr Packman is hoping that curious folk will apply the 'duck test': If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. (Even if it isn't!)

I really would like to know who, or which body, gave the Broads the equivalent status to a National Park. It was agreed that it could call itself a 'member of the national park family' which most folk were happy with. Recently the Authority was cornered on its own blog into admitting that It is correct that the Broads was not designated as a National Park under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 . The reality can't be much clearer than that!

Marsh, by suggesting that a wad of cash could be forthcoming is hardly a spoiler! More that it's a realistic view bearing in mind the nature of the beast. The last Bill was promoted at a time when it was thought that Parliament itself would be less likely to devote much time to it and that there was a cabinet reshuffle, remember that I was on the Nav Com back then and heard it all from executive reports. Since then there has been talk in high places of a next time, face to face indeed, so I have no reason to doubt that it will happen. Dr Packman does not easily take 'no' for an answer, witness the use of the term Broads national park which is despite several setbacks in Parliament and from the relevant Secretaries of State & DEFRA itself.

Conservation bodies, the obscenely wealthy RSPB springs to mind, apparently employ people within the corridors of power. The recent Broads Bill cost many, many tens of thousands, indeed well in excess of one hundred thousand pounds. Could an MP be persuaded to promote a private bill, a bill backed by such as the RSPB? It didn't take long for Norfolk Wildlife to raise over a million so it could purchase Hickling Broad. Bill, I mean you no disrespect but to suggest that it is virtually inconceivable that a Bill could be introduced is, I think, a very blinkered statement. Dr Packman is no fool, complacency is his greatest allie. There are potential backers out there for whom money is absolutely no problem. We can not afford to say never, especially whilst it remains the ambition of the Authority then it's just a matter of time.

Bill, this link might help, then again it might not! https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=csrMCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA66&dq=opinio+juris+equivalent+in+British+law&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj4yKz2r-LXAhVFJ8AKHfXwAwMQ6AEIMzAC#v=onepage&q=opinio juris equivalent in British law&f=false It will take an Act of Parliament in order for the Broads to become a national park, I suspect that we are all agreed on that point, but I have no doubts whatsoever that that is 'the vision', the final ambition.

WW, there are well documented examples of the BA attempting to close Horsey during the winter, of withholding dredging at Hickling albeit it is now doing so, of appalling and unfair planning policies and decisions and of money that has been spent on projects other than that for which they were granted. It is well worth researching the consultation documents in regard to the Broads Bill and the Broads National Park Bill and the Bills themselves after which the intentions of the Authority will become abundantly clear.

In fact the suggestion that the Broads has been given status equivalent to that of a national park is nothing short of misleading bluster, in official terms it hasn't been given such status. The Broads has its own unique legislation. Yes, there are similarities but it ends there. If the status was the same then the Broads would already be an NP but it isn't. The Broads is the Broads and long may they remain so. Only one person has claimed that the Broads has been given status equivalent to a national park, the same one who has imposed the title by way of manipulating reality.

Bill, gaining acceptances of the lie is a large part of gaining the required change in legislation. I rather suspect that you know that.

A few of many similar letters:

The 'lie factor' is relevant, let me explain. I was at a staff and member briefing at BA H.Q. when the BA CEO, John Packman, instructed us and BA staff to call the Broads 'The National Park', explaining that that was in order that the term should gain acceptance. That was despite the fact that the Broads National Park Bill had failed in Parliament and despite the fact that DEFRA was adamant that the Broads is not an N.P. The 'Lie' clearly being used as a means of undermining the will of Parliament, that can't be right. A case of attempting to 'gently, gently, catch the monkey'? I'm sure that it is.

Thankfully so!

Indeed they could be!

Strangely enough I think that most of us saw this coming right from day one. Venture Capitalists, asset strippers, call them what you will, have just one purpose, irrespective of everything else, and that is to make money. Not in anyway a political statement but in my opinion it is a bottom line that has marred Wroxham & Horning and is now biting at Brundall. Make money by all means but don't let it be the B All and End All of life.

My wife and I went to Solihull, Redditch, Coventry & Birmingham at the weekend, numerous times we were asked where we are from. Of course we replied ' The Broads' and without exception, everyone knew just where that was and not one person mentioned national park. The Broads has been marketed and known as the Broads for generations so why change that now? To refer to it as marketing is a poor excuse in my opinion. Sandford is very real and It has long been one man's personal agenda and it has, almost fanatically, been driven by him. At no point has the lead on this issue come from either the people or the Authority members themselves, it has always been executive lead. That can not be right.

The bottom line is????

A principle that is open to abuse, over which we have no democratic control, and there lies the problem.

Line 1 It is a lie. Line 2 It is untrue. Line 3 It is not a democratically achieved decision. Line 4 Repeating the lie is quite simply an underhand tactic being used with the aim of gaining Sandford and the control that that would allow.. Line 5 See lines 1,2,3 and 4