marshman

Vaughan - if you think that is ridiculous, you should see the squit thats going on about opening libraries!! No browsing, no touching the books or reading the "spoiler" on the back - if you want a book you can order it online and they will collect them for you and hand your parcel ti you! How the heck can you "choose" a book if you don't look at??? Defeats the object of libraries totally - see what you get if you put the reopening in the hands of librarians and public sector unions!!!!

PW - I have been watching some of those birds - on bikes.....!!!

Ian - no one is arguing with you and we are pleased you are looking forward to getting out and about but its all a sense of perspective! You state that Covid19 is "..extremely serious if you get it.." but perhaps it would be nearer the truth if you prefaced that remark with "can". Indeed there is plenty of evidence that lots of people show no symptoms and of the remainder only a small proportion are even hospitalised - this is not meant to downplay it at all but if this whole episode illustrates anything, it is how as a community we have forgotten how to assess risk. It starts as we step out of bed every morning and it will not go away but somewhere along the line we have to be able to accurately assess risk or we will never go out at all, let alone work!!! At this moment in time, many people are not assessing risk correctly and need to relearn that ability I am fraid!!

Yes but see Grendels post for the other view of the actual risk!

Ian - I know you are alarmed at the beaches but you just cannot tell from those pictures how close people are! And do you really trust the papers to have actually sent photographers to the actual beaches and not to have used generic pictures? The cynic in me says those pictures may not display the whole truth!!!!

Sorry Bexs, if you are that worried about the pilot, I would seriously give that bit of the river a miss!! Indeed to be really honest, given the fact that Norfolk has been such a hotspot for transmission, and with a bit of luck you should be outside, I should not even give the issue a second thought!! And I wouldn't go anywhere near the ice cream boat unless you desperately want an ice cream - which you probably will!!

I am unclear where conservation comes in - as far as I was aware conservation was greatly enhanced by the creation of the soke dykes when they built the new banks. Alder poles would still be the responsibility of the landowner, not the BA. As Chris rightly points out, they own the bank!

The wild moorings are still there - if you want to take your brush cutter!!! As you probably well know it was nothing to do with vandalism but when the EA moved the flood banks further back, the old quay headings, part of the flood defences and holding up the old flood banks, became redundant, and the EA would no longer maintain them as they did. The BA then had the option of taking over the maintenance of old quay heading throughout Broadland and passing the cost onto the toll payer - instead it was removed and generally I think it has been successful despite many complaints at the time. The maintenance of quay heading is the responsibility of the landowner don't forget, and the BA have to lease even the 24 hr moorings - and that has become more expensive unsurprisingly Wild moorings have gradually returned and will continue to do so but the bigger issue remains the obtrusive "No Moorings" signs which landowners insist on putting up on their land!!!! The Festival of Sail could easily be tacked onto the Ludham Gardens Open Day a biennial event at Womack - but like all things they have to be organised and the organisers get fewer as the demand rises!!!!!

What else you expect!!!!!

Just talk to the yard and see what they say!!!!

Would be sensible - if they actually look at them!! However it may just stop a few callouts on one or two basic things as they can refer to them during the hire. Hunters used to, and perhaps still do, send you something to watch before you go out sailing - shame then that perhaps 50% still cannot reef a boat properly!!!!

People can get very obsessed over not a great deal!! In actual terms the Broads are unquestionably the cleanest they have been for many a long year - I was led to understand, probably wrongly, that the white lilies prefer cleaner water to the yellow ones and that seems to follow. As a result its good to see the white lilies around more and more indicating perhaps there is some truth in that belief. If not someone will be along shortly to say its a load of 'ol squit!!

Sorry Bernard - but of course the water goes up and down! I have been on the Broads long enough to know that! However the NTL (Normal Tidal Limit) is an officially recognised limit of tidal influence and is marked as such on OS maps for the various rivers concerned. It is an average and does not mean that above that, tidal influence is not felt. The point being in this issue, is that as it is classified as above tidal waters, so salvage rights applicable lower down may well not apply - as always I am open to be proved wrong!!! I am sure that others will explain more fully (or I hope they will! ) but it is the legal head of tide for many issues. The NTL on the Bure is outside the top entrance to Wroxham Broad, and the Thurne at the top end Candle Dyke where it enters Heigham Sound.

Sorry Pete - its not even tidal waters - that stops at the beginning of Barton and this is usefully above that!

I did not find the situation at Roys at all confusing!! Pretty straight forward to me - they have you queuing in the clothes bit of the shop to keep you out of the rain but also to stop the queue blocking up what is a fairly narrow pavement on a very busy road, right by a bus stop and the pedestrian crossing! Eminently sensible to my point of view! With the car park being on the other side of the road, I think I prefer the shop to a 40 tonner whizzing by my lug hole!!!!

I think Vaughan is absolutely right - it will be a logistical nightmare and, to top it all, a pollution spill in that area especially could be a nightmare! I know it could be contained but to have a spill in that area, one of the last untouched fens, would be beyond contemplation and I suspect that that even Natural England may baulk at it! Sutton Fen ,the other side of the dyke is an area not even the BA can go in on a regular basis - it is literally untouched apart from I believe, a bi annual flora and fauna survey I believe. This will not help but think about a little - the costs mount up at the mere thought! Probably the worst place you could dump it!!!!

Strange - I must be very lucky as I have been braving the supermarkets from the outset and still not caught it!!

You mean it was such a shame it was on the moorings or someone did not pour diesel over it?

And I think availability of heavy lifting gear could be an issue - they need to get a decent crane to lift it and they do not have one up there above Ludham Bridge. The only excavators would probably only break it up and that brings further problems in that you could well have significant pollution issues in the midst of a extra special SSSI!!!! So its only a guess but the problems of removal are perhaps not as clear cut as some may imagine? And that would significantly increase the cost to everyone!

On a topic more related to the Broads, I was having a chat to the bloke who runs NYA in Horning, and I have just looked at their website! So much for all those doomsters saying how secondhand prices would fall away rapidly - their stock has diminished rapidly at all levels so someone is spending their pennies!!

Andrew - I suspect you have not been on the Electric Eel? not sure that has a toilet either!!!! P.S. Vaughan - we used to keep our boat at Nobby's! He let me out on Nutty several times!!! Now that is a long long time ago!!

It cannot go anywhere where its too windy - above Potter the tide runs too quiockly and it is in reality , too open!

I think the missing word is "planning" to open sites!!!!

Surely if you go down to a one metre rule, which you will have to eventually like it or not, then the BA will have to abandon that silly regulation?

This scam is seemingly quite common in SE London area - they order the stuff with your details and they sit outside the house waiting for the postman and then pretend they are the recipient - who they say is out or they are just going in so you need not deliver to the house. The postman then hands it over and bobs your uncle! Happened to one of my family in Orpington. The parcel was a computer from John Lewis and they nearly got away with it but the post was delivered early. You get no goods, but a bill - you say you have not had delivery and you can probably get away with paying the bill too!