JennyMorgan

It is not so long since an appeal was won against a planning enforcement on the Thames. Seems that the boat owner won because the planning inspector ruled that there was nothing about one boat over another to suggest that one was being lived on and one was not, if that makes sense! Fact is that on the Broads thousands of folk live on boats, we normally call them holiday makers.

Still don't know what the attraction of Horning to Wroxham is!

Half pints in flute style glasses might add a tad of class to a Newky!

If a woman gets her way with carpets then it's a fair bet she'll then demand curtains! Teak effect curtains anyone?

Malcolm, thank you for the clarification.

That makes three of us!

A taste for 'the real ale stuff' will materialise, given time!

Malcolm professes to be a member of the public.

Agreed but sooner or later I'd probably need to pass through Horning & Wroxham. All those fenders on the gin palace, I wonder why!?

In truth what is the attraction of the Bure?

Whether Malcolm is or isn't is almost immaterial since it would appear that any decision depends on cooperation between both groups rather than individuals. Should the Parish Council refuse what would be a perfectly feasible and honourable solution then they would deserve whatever condemnation comes their way. I don't see how they could reasonably refuse what is effectively a mutually beneficial outcome.

Scrumpy's list, with the exception of just one pub that on the only occasion that I visited it offered probably the most bland food imaginable, is pretty much spot on. However I would add both The Geldeston Locks and the Geldeston Wherry, the first serves really excellent whale and chips, the second offers a really good steak menu. The whale, in truth, is a super large portion of very decent cod.

Malcolm has made it quite clear that the Islanders have the option to hire what would effectively be a community dinghy mooring on the Green. Seems to me to be a viable and obvious option and neither party would lose face, effectively a win-win situation. To be perfectly blunt, if both or either party fails to grasp this opportunity for an amicable solution then my sympathy is likely to evaporate! Malcolm has made the first move, he deserves credit for that.

There's now talk about it for cars, so why not older boat engines? http://www.edp24.co.uk/business/should-the-government-pay-people-to-scrap-their-diesel-cars-1-4978419 Just a thought but there are some on the system that exude a fair old plume of toxic fumes that are, if nothing else, pretty darned anti social.

Colin, Chatterbox was a shame, but she also became the yardstick by which other liveaboards were judged, but she is not alone. Abandoned, sunk, even burnt out boats are not unknown on the Broads, boats that subsequently become a burden on the public purse, all too often boats that were previously liveaboards. Only very recently a boat was abandoned and burnt out near Loddon. That is what other residential boaters and the Authorities are constantly up against.

I do sympathise with both the Broads Authority and the Parish Council to a degree, pictures like the above show exactly what they are trying to avoid and I don't blame them.

Entirely right, I'm afraid the Chatterbox saga, for example, did nothing remotely positive for the liveaboard community:

Would a vintage Rolls be parked outside Tesco? I have near neighbours with a vintage, supercharged Brooklands Bentley, classy motor and surely a match for any Roller. Both are retired but nevertheless they do have Tesco deliver their groceries, but always after dark! As if none of us nosey neighbours notice, ha!

Personally I see the refusal to allow a liveaboard community to develop within Jenner's marina as a missed opportunity to provide a valuable, off river facility for those who have chosen, for whatever reason, to live on a boat. This could have been conditional on the removal of liveaboard boats from the river and was a golden opportunity to provide a formal, serviced and safe environment for liveaboards. Okay, so Mr Wood made no real effort to help himself, but both the Authority & the Parish Council were in a position to take a lead and it is to be regretted that neither did. As it is planners in general urgently need to review their policies and mind-sets in regard to the provision of genuinely affordable homes. Residential boats are an obvious and realistic route for consideration, especially within the confines of a major city. Jenner's Marina is a sadly wasted opportunity and its demise is of no great credit to any of the related authorities. Anyway, that decision has been made, time to move on, perhaps a more convivial attitude to the Island community could be adopted and encouraged in the future. We are talking people & people's lives here, that mustn't be forgotten. The authorities have a moral duty to be socially inclusive.

http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/abandoned-boat-catches-fire-in-loddon-1-4977614 I wonder who will pay to sort this one out ?

My Gran'dad used to claim that frocks that were so short that a girl would catch a cold were 'just below sea level'. It was several years before I understood what he meant!

A few years ago it might have been suggested that the WRC charged over the odds. Now, helped by inflation, those charges might be seen as being reasonable, which I think that they are for what's on offer. Unless things have changed camping charges are higher than those for moorings, lucky are those who visit the WRC by boat!

And there was me thinking that Towie and Eastenders are true to life! The original Essex Girl joke-book was printed in Lowestoft, under duress. The proprietor of the print works claimed that his business was that of a Christian Book Printer and having contracted to print the joke book he tried to pull out, being somewhat put out by the book's content. He was held to contract.

Poppy, so you are an Essex boy then, that explains so much! You can take the boy out of Essex but can you take Essex out of the boy?

Martin, I am not suggesting unregulated mooring on the Green, what I am suggesting is a reasonable acceptance by the Council of the needs of those living on the Island and therefor providing moorings for their dinghies. In society we have a need to park our cars and most councils, thankfully, make an effort to provide them and do so without unreasonable restrictions. For many people on the Broads, and the Islanders in particular, their dinghies are their cars. Effectively how many dinghies are we talking about, it can't be that many? If the Council is prepared to offer a thirty foot cruiser a mooring for a rent of whatever then why not provide a similar length of quay heading, about forty foot I suppose, for the same rate to the Islanders? Instead of mooring one 'acceptable' cruiser there there would be so many rowing boats, all sharing the rent of that one berth. I'm sorry, Martin, but to refuse to do so would smack of bloody minded discrimination and that is wholly unacceptable.