New Chief Executive At The Broads Authority.

[Paul]

Congratulations on your appointment to your new post, the top post at Thorpe House. As you sink into your sumptuous executive leather chair and drain the last of your double shot skinny choco mocha latte with hazelnut syrup and sprinkles collected from one of Norwich's swanky coffee houses on your way to the office you open your very first email. It comes from the representative of a deceased oligarch, a deceased wealthy oligarch who has left his entire fortune for the "protection and furtherment of The Norfolk and Suffolk Broads".

You predecessor created an environment where the Chief Executive's word is law, a democracy of one. So what are you going to do with your limitless budget. What would be your first order of the day?

[BroadScot]

5 minutes ago, Paul said:

What would be your first order of the day?

Another posh coffee? Have I silted up the lower Bure properly? If not, why not !

Reply to irate holidaymaker..... Me!

Iain 

[SPEEDTRIPLE]

Demolish Potter Heigham old road bridge, and replace it with an ALMOST identical replica. Only the replica would have an average HIGH WATER airdraught of 7 ft 6 ins.  Then i`d dredge all the rivers, force a compulsory purchase of the ENTIRE broads river banks, then open up all the upper reaches that have been allowed to fall into disrepair. You`d be able to cruise the Waveney to Bungay, the Bure to Aylsham, and the Ant to Horsted, and you`d be able to moor anywhere. I`d also buy up ALL broads pubs, and reduce the rents to 25% of their current levels, or maybe even less. I`d also appoint Howard (Norfolk Nog) as pub superintendant to keep a check on them.

[BroadScot]

54 minutes ago, SPEEDTRIPLE said:

Demolish Potter Heigham old road bridge, and replace it with an ALMOST identical replica. Only the replica would have an average HIGH WATER airdraught of 7 ft 6 ins.  Then i`d dredge all the rivers, force a compulsory purchase of the ENTIRE broads river banks, then open up all the upper reaches that have been allowed to fall into disrepair. You`d be able to cruise the Waveney to Bungay, the Bure to Aylsham, and the Ant to Horsted, and you`d be able to moor anywhere. I`d also buy up ALL broads pubs, and reduce the rents to 25% of their current levels, or maybe even less. I`d also appoint Howard (Norfolk Nog) as pub superintendant to keep a check on them.

And.....when you waken up Neil, put the kettle on ! 

[JennyMorgan]

For those misguided souls who would want Potter old bridge replaced there is, apparently, a vision to replace it with a GRP replica, complete with lifting central arch. The old one would be recycled and rebranded for marketing purposes as Norfolk Rock and sold off by Yare House Trading, a subsidiary company of BNP Enterprises. 

[Viking23]

If you had unlimited resources, open up the rivers and canalise them, and join them to the hundreds of miles of inland waterways, this will transform the Broads, imagine hundreds of steel narrow boats, some 70' long hogging all the moorings, now stern moor those at the Ferry inn at Horning lol

Imagine a flotilla of 70' steel boats, each weighing up to 28 tonne, going up the Ant and encountering the fleet coming the other way, there might be a few CDWs active that day lol. 

Re Potter Heigham bridge, technology is available to physically lift Potter bridge in it's entirety, just have deep pockets.

As a listed and protected structure I would think it would be acceptable to do this. If you get a chance to look at the underside of the bridge it is really battle scarred, getting worse year on year by the minor knocks and scrapes,  I'm surprised they let boats through at all !!

In comparison, Stone Henge is a listed structure, and they keep people away from that to preserve it, in the 70's you could walk around and touch each stone, but some deliberate name carving put paid to that.

If money was no object, I would link the upper Bure to the upper Yare, put in a huge lock, to prevent excess movement of water, charge £10 per passage and allow even larger boats to reach the northern Broads.

So be careful what you wish for, imagine what damage to the environment and the quiet back waters of the Northern Broads, what could they look like if there was a bottomless pot of money. No, lets keep the Northern Broads as they are. 

[Timbo]

I have to admit that it's something I've wasted the occasional hour contemplating, even without unlimited finances in the equation. So what would I do?

Since 2001 Instead of protecting the Norfolk Broads for the good of all, the Broads Authority has polarised views on how the Broads should be run and for whose benefit. So murky has the factional landscape of the Norfolk Broads become that not only are conservationists and ecologists played off against boaters both private and hire, but members of each faction are arguing amongst themselves about the direction that should be taken  in order to safeguard the Broads for the future. I suppose my first job would be to tackle this situation head on and fulfil the prime directive of the Broads Authority and provide parity and unity to the warzone that the Broads have become.

My first act as Chief Executive of the Broads Authority would be to claim back the instruments of authority given under statute. In other words the past tinkering and unnecessary interpretation of the Broads Act would be undone. I think it a measure of the current CEO that he has no idea of the powers that the Broads Authority, and as the CEO he himself, holds. The two main watchwords of the new regime will be 'safety' and 'parity'. All committee's will be returned to their statutory function, components and membership. First on the list, the Navigation Committee. Planning authority will be retained with an emphasis on how these powers can be utilised across Broadland, in conjunction with environmental and navigational powers.

I learned a valuable lesson in my time at Tel Beer Sheva National Park. It goes something like this "!לא מחרבן שבו אתם אוכל". Roughly translated as 'Don't sh** where you eat!'. This is a lesson all stakeholders need to learn. Funding is finite, ever shrinking in the current economic climate. EU funding will soon be gone and will not be replaced. Stakeholders will be brought to the negotiating table, kicking and screaming if need be, and forced to face two simple facts. First, The Broads are a waterway. The clue is in the name. Secondly, we all need each other. Wildlife and ecology, business, industry, tourism...the whole kit and caboodle will find itself increasingly financed from one source. Toll Payers.

Boaters beware I wouldn't be throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Wildlife and ecology are just as much a part of the Broadland landscape as everything else. Under the new regime boats would not be navigating rough shod through SSI's and nature reserves. In order for the Broads to work, the Toll System needs to be expanded. Be that expansion in financial terms which could be an increase in Tolls, fixed penalty notices or a payment of Toll through access or dredging or the provision of moorings.

There will be some redundancies under the new regime. The Marketing department will cease to exist other than to ask the most basic question of Broads Tourism Providers being 'how can we help you to market your own business?'. The UEA students will be rejoicing at getting many of their lecturers back where they belong...in the classroom teaching.There will be some new faces at the table including better and more accurate representation  for culture and antiquities.

The biggest changes under the new regime will be a recognition that 'all good things come to an end'. And that would include my term as Chief Executive. Within my term independent oversight will be instituted to make sure the Authority stays within the bounds of the Broads Act and to ensure that the oppressive and feudal gagging of committee members will be ended, as will the 'loading' of committee's to effect their decisions or advice. Within my term local communities will be given the opportunity to have their democratically elected representatives take their due places in the Broads Authority.

Change is coming! Even the current Broads Authority regime have accepted in the Draft Plan for the Broads 2017 that not only is it coming...change is inevitable. Although we cannot stop change we can alter its direction and it's impact. We can alter the landscape.  After all, this is what makes the Broads so significant. Man's ability to create and alter a landscape. My term in office will see The Broads no longer just a member of the National Park Family, for it is so much more than that. The culmination of my term in office will see a fair democratic election by local people and toll payers of my replacement. For The Broads are more than a National Park. They are more than one man!

In my term as Chief Executive The Broads will become a shining beacon of democracy which demonstrates man's ability to both change, care and preserve his landscape for his own sake and the sake of generations still yet to come!

Thank you.

Please send my Knighthood in the stamped, self addressed envelope provided! 

[SPEEDTRIPLE]

Timbo, i think you`ve missed the point of the OP?.  The thought is about "money being no object, and you have absolute power"?.  Now would`nt that be a good thing for us boaters?.

[ExUserGone]

Stick up millions of 'motorboats only' and 'stricly no sailing allowed' signs all over the broads.

[ranworthbreeze]

7 minutes ago, LeoMagill said:

Stick up millions of 'motorboats only' and 'stricly no sailing allowed' signs all over the broads.

Are you trying to get into Graces good books?.

Regards

Alan

[JennyMorgan]

8 hours ago, Timbo said:

My first act as Chief Executive of the Broads Authority would be to claim back the instruments of authority given under statute. In other words the past tinkering and unnecessary interpretation of the Broads Act would be undone. I think it a measure of the current CEO that he has no idea of the powers that the Broads Authority, and as the CEO he himself, holds.

 

Tim, don't underestimate the man. I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that he knows to the enth degree exactly what powers he has. And if he doesn't have the power he will reinterpret another one to provide what he wants. Have no doubts about him, he is hugely well educated, indeed over educated, undoubtedly manipulative and totally targeted, just a shame that he is not on our side. However, he is on a side, but it is solely his own.

[C.Ricko]

abolish the hire boat multiplier 

[JanetAnne]

4 minutes ago, C.Ricko said:

abolish the hire boat multiplier 

Would that saving be passed on to the hirer? If so then I am all for it!

[JennyMorgan]

Have to ask, Clive, surely you pass the cost of the multiplier onto your clients so why is it an issue? Effectively it is a visitor tax, perhaps it could be channelled into refuse collection? 

[Paul]

7 minutes ago, JennyMorgan said:

Have to ask, Clive, surely you pass the cost of the multiplier onto your clients so why is it an issue? Effectively it is a visitor tax, perhaps it could be channeled into refuse collection? 

an excellent suggestion PW, but as this toll money is paid over to the Authority it would be for them to do such channeling rather than the boatyards who already provide waste facilities for their own and visiting hire boats and incur the heavy cost of disposal of such. 

[Vaughan]

I know what Clive means and I agree with him.

Traditionally a hire boat pays more because it is using the waterways more.

Nowadays this is outweighed by the number of holidaymakers that boat is bringing to the Broads, each week, with all their associated tourist "spend".

Compare this with the actual use, and commercial "impact" of a private motor cruiser, over a season, and why should a hire boat pay more in tolls?

[JennyMorgan]

An interesting opinion, Vaughan. Apart from the syndicate boats I don't suppose many private boats are used much in comparison with hire boats. Was it not for hireboats then I don't suppose we would have been lumbered with the cost of Spirit of Breydon. 

[Paul]

2 minutes ago, JennyMorgan said:

Was it not for hireboats then I don't suppose we would have been lumbered with the cost of Spirit of Breydon. 

I don't often disagree with you JM, but I don't think that argument is particularly watertight (a bit like SOB some might say). I think the authority would have "invested" in SOB if they only had a flock of over wintering geese to keep an eye on.

[JanetAnne]

4 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

I know what Clive means and I agree with him.

Traditionally a hire boat pays more because it is using the waterways more.

Nowadays this is outweighed by the number of holidaymakers that boat is bringing to the Broads, each week, with all their associated tourist "spend".

Compare this with the actual use, and commercial "impact" of a private motor cruiser, over a season, and why should a hire boat pay more in tolls?

Seeings as there is no restriction of use on private boats I would suggest that some vessels easily match days out and about of an average hire boat. Its the hire boats that keep the pubs and broads based facilities going - well you know what I mean.

Perhaps a more careful spend of the toll revenue would allow the hire boat multiplier to be reduced without costing the private boaters the shortfall?

 

[Paul]

4 minutes ago, JanetAnne said:

I would suggest that some vessels easily match days out and about of an average hire boat

Some may, but very very few would see the 140+ days out on the network that the average hire boat does. Neither are they refilled every week with new tenants each bringing their holiday cash with them. Vaughan makes a very valid point about the commercial impact of private boats. 

[ranworthbreeze]

Lets remember that it is all the boats that are on the Broads that is keeping them open, loosing any section could mean the death of the Broads as we know it.

Regards

Alan

[SPEEDTRIPLE]

50 minutes ago, JennyMorgan said:

An interesting opinion, Vaughan. Apart from the syndicate boats I don't suppose many private boats are used much in comparison with hire boats. Was it not for hireboats then I don't suppose we would have been lumbered with the cost of Spirit of Breydon. 

OI JM,  you can pack that in for a start, as a syndicate boat owner, i don`t want OUR toll going through the roof thank very much lolol.

Seriously though, syndicate boating does represent a cheap way of ownership (excuse the punn) but let`s NOT give the BA ideas please?.

[JennyMorgan]

1 hour ago, JanetAnne said:

Seeings as there is no restriction of use on private boats I would suggest that some vessels easily match days out and about of an average hire boat. Its the hire boats that keep the pubs and broads based facilities going - well you know what I mean.

Perhaps a more careful spend of the toll revenue would allow the hire boat multiplier to be reduced without costing the private boaters the shortfall?

 

Just to remind folk that the toll provides about half the Authority's annual income. Bear in mind that navigation represents just one third of the Authority's duties and then consider that fifty percent of the toll is hived off for overheads. Adjust that injustice then there might be no need for private boaters to pick up any shortfall.

Speed, don't worry, he does know, it has been considered, shared ownership has gone on for generations. Too many variations for it to be a consideration, or it was when I was involved in a tolls review. An issue that would upset a lot of boatowners, both sail and motor. There are even syndicate dinghies owned by anglers. For a kick off I reckon identifying all the syndicate boats would be a major headache.

[BroadAmbition]

'B.A' currently has four owners (there is provision for a fifth but we have never bothered with it much) this year to date she has been crewed up 73 days. Last year it was just over 100 days - must try harder

Griff

[BroadAmbition]

The proposed new 'Fair' toll system for next year from what I have read represents a huge percentage increase for us. Once I get home I'll no doubt have to have a sit down and look at it

Griff