JennyMorgan

Perhaps, John, it shouldn't just be one man's vision, not even mine!

I really don't have an issue with someone being paid well, if I honestly believed that they, whoever it was, deserved it. I was out on the riverbank today, I happened to hear some local watermen chatting, their comments re the Authority unsolicited were less than charitable. Whilst I might be wide of the mark on occasions I do know that there are others who are also less than enamoured with the Authority as it is.

That would be to recommend a return to how it was pre BA days, not sure that that would be a move in the right direction. The original concept of the Broads Authority was, in my honest opinion, right. In it's formative years, under Prof Aitkin Clarke, the embryo Authority was less than perfect but it did some sterling work and it largely deserved the public support & trust that it embraced. So no, I wouldn't wish to see it disbanded. However I do think that it urgently needs reviewing, that it should be wholly accountable to its customers. Timbo was spot on the other day when he suggested that we need someone at the sharp end that accepts the Broads for what it is rather than seeking to fulfill his own 'vision' as to what the Broads should be.

Poppy, I will post those comments & references elsewhere, hope that you don't mind. A closed shop affair but on the surface an important point of law has been blatantly ignored at great cost to us toll payers and it needs taking further. I know a few people who might be able to help.

Let's look at it another way, the BA has a history of interpreting and manipulating UK & EU laws, byelaws and directives to suit its own ends, that is gin clear. Quite simply it begs the question, why? The raised banks of the Broads are a distinctive feature of our rivers, should we assume that the upper echelons don't like the look of mud? I'm not a legal person, perhaps Poppy isn't either, but I think that we need to be certain of the facts in regard to the UK Gov guidance. Going back in time to the hoo-ha over winter access to Horsey Mere and the threats of huge fines under EU laws by the BA, well, that proved to be a hollow threat. However, the idea that vast swards of dosh have been wasted when disposing of dredged mud, spoil, sometimes some distance away, just on the whim of one individual, demands further investigation. In that respect I wish that I had the tenacity and ability of Paladine. If it wasn't necessary to transport spoil, sometimes several miles, then why do it?

What no one mentioned in the above report is the potential to break away from the more inane of the European directives. Due to EU meddling with the way things are traditionally done on the Broads, side swipe dredging and the depositing of spoil on the bank for example, river maintenance costs have risen rather more than substantially. Hopefully a break from those blessed directives will mean that the Authority will have the potential to save a literal fortune. The BA executive takes a lot of flack but its works team does stirling work, well deserving of praise, both the BA and the EA have been hampered by the EU and we have had to pick up a substantial tab.

Tim, thanks for your kind assistance and realistic assessment.

You could well be right, Matt, but by my reckoning that could mean poorly paid support staff. I know for a fact that he received an above grade pay rise for this year although I'm not privy to the amount. I understand that other staff received only the basic rise and that the disparity was not universally well received. Not a huge issue, I suppose, although it does raise the question of percentage rises, tolls and salaries, that creates growing differentials, no easy answer

Some years ago I was fishing with my father, bites were rather more than sparse when along came the eleventh hour, my father, who went to Normandy, lowered his head in reverence to the companions that he'd lost. As you might expect his rod started to jump up and down, an obvious cod bite demanding attention. I have never forgotten that moment, the ignored bite and the sincerity of my father. I suppose I was about ten years old at the time. Mark, a very poignant image and comment.

Let us consider, Senator, that in the majority of cases folk have boats that reflect their income thus small boat owners tend not to have limitless cash. Three small boats won't replace one big one, that's obvious and it must surely be obvious to Dr Packman. If many big boats go, as we both suspect, then I agree that the burden will increasingly fall onto the shoulders of us small boat men, only many of us won't be able to afford it and so we shall have to go too. The BA needs boats, boats equal income to the BA, so I really don't understand the rationale behind the proposed increase. Enough is enough, year on year above inflation toll increases are no longer acceptable, no matter how you dress them up. I think this, and the way the NBF has been abused by JP, simply drives an ever widening wedge between the Authority and the boating community. It's a gamble for the BA, one that they have normally won.

Matt, further down that same report: Financial-Performance-and-Direction-ba181116.pdf Appendix Two, Chief Executive, Salaries £103,000. 2016/2017 I'm not clever enough to reproduce it here but it is there.

I find the white tent a tad hypocritical. The yard is what it is, always reasonably tidy, it looks just as I'd expect of a working yard, I really don't have a problem with that, but the usual insistence that riverside leisure sheds & the like be brown or green does suggest a hint of double standards. Having said that, this tent is, apparently, perfectly legal but is it a good example?

Matt, numbers is not my strong point, that I admit, but in the minutes there is mention of £103,000.00 plus a friendly Authority insider mentioned 'over £100,000.00' to me.

I wonder, Matt, into whose pocket will any benefit be paid? Will it be the hirer's? I doubt it!

Timbo, I really don't know what is going on. I see that Packman is on almost £104,000.00 per annum, above his grading I'm told. I have to ask myself how on earth does he justify that level of remuneration? What sort of undeserved pension will we be saddled with when he retires? Self indulgence, maybe. Vanity project, yes. Empire building, certainly. Irresponsible waste of money, also certainly. I note the new uniforms with NP logos, is that to brand the Broads or to brand the Authority?

Packman Towers/Yare House at Thorpe and it's at 10.00hrs, details here: http://www.broads-authority.gov.uk/broads-authority/committees/broads-authority/broads-authority-18-november-2016?SQ_CALENDAR_DATE=2016-11-18 and here: http://www.broads-authority.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/818785/Tolls-Review-2016-and-Proposed-Navigation-Charges-for-2016-17-in-the-Navigation-Area-and-Adjacent-Waters-ba181116.pdf

Unlike a company the Broads Authority is supposedly made up of members from representative various shareholder groups. The Broads is a very wide cathedral, naturally those groups will represent a wide, if not vast range of opinions, not just that one opinion from above. As things are I firmly believe that there are members who are toeing the party line and in doing so are betraying the very people that they are there to represent. What can we do about that? Nothing.

A growing number of people have said that they will be "attending" the next B.A. Meeting on the 18th of November, I would like to see as many people there as possible and show the members just how p***** off the majority of Toll payers are. Anyone interested in joining in this protest please contact the organiser by e-mail davidw_947@hotmail.com As the organiser would like to get as many people there as possible he asks anyone else that interested to post something similar on any other Forum that they may be a members of. , For once I firmly believe that the various Broads forums would benefit by working together, please, for Broads sakes.

There is even more dubious goings on going on, if I believe what I'm told by a very reliable source. I have always regarded JP as the ultimate control freak, to use modern parlance. I have permission from the originator of the following information to go public. Since I know, from personal experience, that it goes on I have no hesitation in relaying this information. Apparently and reportedly there are certain BA members, such as Gail Harris, Bill Dickson, Michael Whitaker and Nav Com member Linda Aspland who, who on receiving correspondence regarding the tolls review, are forwarding said correspondence on to JP for him "... to coordinate our replies and provide consistent and accurate information." Some of the members obviously do not have their own opinions! If anyone wishes to post this elsewhere then please do. I find the whole grubby saga absolutely distasteful although it's what I have come to expect from that quango. Bill Dickson, Michael Whitaker and Linda Aspland (navcom member only) to that list.

The official response is that it is being used for storage whilst the not very big 'big shed' is being renovated.

So it's going to be a permanent structure then?

It's not yellow, it's not a three wheeler, it's not what I expected at all!

Some of you might know the saga of the BA's workshop at Thorpe, others of you might not. Read carefully between the lines and maybe you'll be a little wiser. Basically it means that if you built a boat house make sure it's big enough in the first place otherwise it's a waste of money. http://www.broadsnationalpike.com/2016/11/members-disciplined-at-mockyard-torture.html

That that is highlighted in red is probably the best interpretation of the Packman ideology that I have encountered to date.

John, not that I can find with my limited ability. I shall ask a man who probably knows. As I understand it the original agreement was that the dam would be removed at the end of the experiment, a not disimilar situation and agreement now exists at Hoveton Great Broad. I think that Cockshoot has largely escaped attention because whilst the Broad was wet it really wasn't a practical navigation, due to neglect, rather like HGB..