Urgent News Obstruction Blocking The Entrance To Commissioners Cut Moorings

[ranworthbreeze]

Dear All

Urgent Boating News - The entrance to Commissioners Cut moorings is blocked by an obstruction. The obstruction is marked and lit. Please exercise caution when navigating in the Commissioners Cut area of the River Yare.

Kind Regards

Laura Milner

Administrative Officer Operations

Broads Authority

Please note my current working days are Tuesday to Friday

[YnysMon]

Hi Alan

I very much appreciate that you go to the trouble to post these announcements. It’s a great help. We were thinking of going in that direction early next week, so good to be forewarned. 

Helen

[Wussername]

May I ask as to what exactly is the obstruction?

Andrew

[ExSurveyor]

A partially sunken houseboat that has come away from the mooring posts. From fb it appears a diy refloat is not proceeding very well.

[Oddfellow]

The river isn't blocked, just entrance to Commissioner's Cut

 

[BuffaloBill]

So what's a 'houseboat' doing in there in the first place?

[NorfolkNog]

Live a board? 

[JennyMorgan]

1 minute ago, BuffaloBill said:

So what's a 'houseboat' doing in there in the first place?

Perhaps the propeller 'fell off' so it can't go anywhere! 

[Oddfellow]

It sunk on its mooring about 100 yards away. I believe there was some ill-fated DIY attempt at re-floating that didn't go to plan. Still, not sure how it moved so far from it's resting spot though. 

This was somebody's home. They seem to have lost everything and they were unsure as to how it went down from the reports I read a week or so back. 

This latest episode in somebody's life won't be any nicer than the vessel taking on water in the first place. 

[JennyMorgan]

At least it's off the main river.

[Meantime]

At least attempts are being made to recover it rather than just abandon it as has happened elsewhere.

With the financial hardship that this virus is bound to inflict there are likely to be more people looking to make a home on the water. Time for the BA to start planning on how they are going to provide for and manage this extra increase. 

[JennyMorgan]

4 minutes ago, Meantime said:

Time for the BA to start planning on how they are going to provide for and manage this extra increase. 

In fairness they have been looking at the problem. They have also been keeping an eye on residential boaters and encouraging them to moor where public services can easily access them in the event of an emergency, especially so during the Lock-Down. 

The Authority shouldn't be forgiven for the Jenner's Basin furour, that was a disgrace but subsequently they do appear to have become more sympathetic. Perhaps they are seeking a fair balance but I really don't think that that should include what on land would be regarded as an absolute slum. As things are Norwich needs to provide for a houseboat community, as it needs to provide for the travelling community. My wife and I had a drive out in the country yesterday, we were both surprised as to the amount of caravans seemingly in residential use, presumably offsprings in their parent's garden or field.  People need homes and folk who are prepared to help themselves should surely be encouraged. 

[Vaughan]

1 hour ago, JennyMorgan said:

The Authority shouldn't be forgiven for the Jenner's Basin furour, that was a disgrace

Even more so, in hindsight.

 

[ranworthbreeze]

3 hours ago, JennyMorgan said:

In fairness they have been looking at the problem. They have also been keeping an eye on residential boaters and encouraging them to moor where public services can easily access them in the event of an emergency, especially so during the Lock-Down. 

The Authority shouldn't be forgiven for the Jenner's Basin furour, that was a disgrace but subsequently they do appear to have become more sympathetic. Perhaps they are seeking a fair balance but I really don't think that that should include what on land would be regarded as an absolute slum. As things are Norwich needs to provide for a houseboat community, as it needs to provide for the travelling community. My wife and I had a drive out in the country yesterday, we were both surprised as to the amount of caravans seemingly in residential use, presumably offsprings in their parent's garden or field.  People need homes and folk who are prepared to help themselves should surely be encouraged. 

Maybe Whitlingham would be better suited as a Norwich basin for boating visitors and a good base for liveaboards, rather than what it is used for at the moment.

[Meantime]

6 minutes ago, ranworthbreeze said:

Maybe Whitlingham would be better suited as a Norwich basin for boating visitors and a good base for liveaboards, rather than what it is used for at the moment.

Wasn't that land given by the Colman family on the condition that no motorised craft were allowed on the broad, apart from rescue vessels?

[Vaughan]

23 minutes ago, Meantime said:

Wasn't that land given by the Colman family on the condition that no motorised craft were allowed on the broad, apart from rescue vessels?

Possibly, but given is hardly the word, it seems, since they have now taken back the land on the expiry of the lease agreement with the BA.

In this way the commercial extraction of gravel was presented as the "donation" of a new Broad.

 

[Meantime]

23 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

Possibly, but given is hardly the word, it seems, since they have now taken back the land on the expiry of the lease agreement with the BA.

In this way the commercial extraction of gravel was presented as the "donation" of a new Broad.

 

That is not strictly true Vaughan. The land is owned by The Whitlingham Charitable Trust and was donated to it by The Colman Family, who are also one of the trustee's of the charity. The BA's relationship was to manage the park on behalf of the charity. It is this relationship which has come to an end as the charity wish to manage the park in house. The ownership or lease of the land has not changed as it was never leased to The BA, but was managed by them. There is a slightly grey area in what I have just said, in so far as I don't know the full situation with the BA mooring at Whitlingham. The original aims of the charity which was to provide public access and enjoyment of the rural environment has not changed. 

[NorfolkNog]

Update

 

 

[JennyMorgan]

1 hour ago, Meantime said:

Wasn't that land given by the Colman family on the condition that no motorised craft were allowed on the broad, apart from rescue vessels?

Technically a houseboat is static, it has no power, e.g. no engine.

Perhaps the Whitlingham Charity should be more charitable but then perhaps the Whitlingham Pits is not the answer. Surely somewhere though is, but where?  A few off river dykes/cuts  as in days of old could be the answer. At the moment Norwich, as many places, has insufficient accommodation for those on a low income and it certainly doesn't provide for the floating population.  

[Meantime]

4 minutes ago, JennyMorgan said:

Technically a houseboat is static, it has no power, e.g. no engine.

Perhaps the Whitlingham Charity should be more charitable but then perhaps the Whitlingham Pits is not the answer. Surely somewhere though is, but where?  A few off river dykes/cuts  as in days of old could be the answer. At the moment Norwich, as many places, has insufficient accommodation for those on a low income and it certainly doesn't provide for the floating population.  

I guess the big issue is that the canals and rivers trust owns a lot more of the land that runs alongside the canals, than The Broads Authority does. It's main ability to increase residential moorings would be through it's role as a planning authority and enabling private land owners to develop such facilities. 

[grendel]

there looks to be a nice body of water at thorpe marshes that might suit, looks big enough for considerable moorings off river and out of sight,

[JennyMorgan]

17 minutes ago, grendel said:

there looks to be a nice body of water at thorpe marshes that might suit, looks big enough for considerable moorings off river and out of sight,

That area was suggested for residential moorings back in my time on the Navigation Committee. It wasn't favorably received at the time. However, since then the obvious need has surely increased.

[Vaughan]

1 hour ago, Meantime said:

That is not strictly true Vaughan.

 

I have posted this before but it is still worth reading again carefully, if you think the "country park" was a charitable donation.  Have a look at the two signatories to that charity!

I also grew up on the Yare, right there on what used to be the Whitlingham marshes and the Crown Point meadows, before "Mr Peabody's Coal Train"* came and hauled it away.

 

* A song by John Prine, made famous by John Denver, about a true story.

[Vaughan]

1 hour ago, grendel said:

there looks to be a nice body of water at thorpe marshes that might suit, looks big enough for considerable moorings off river and out of sight,

If you mean the old Whitlingham marsh on the north bank near the Commissioners Cut (part of the gravel pits), that is now a heavily protected bird reserve, also "donated" at the time.

Thou shalt not frighten the birds.

[Meantime]

20 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

 

I have posted this before but it is still worth reading again carefully, if you think the "country park" was a charitable donation.  Have a look at the two signatories to that charity!

I also grew up on the Yare, right there on what used to be the Whitlingham marshes and the Crown Point meadows, before "Mr Peabody's Coal Train"* came and hauled it away.

 

* A song by John Prine, made famous by John Denver, about a true story.

Sadly large areas of the countryside get quarried and mined for all sorts of reasons and then left as eyesores, or sold on and turned into other commercial ventures. Those two havens of commercialism that are The Lakeside shopping complex and Bluewater over in Kent are two such fine examples. Once business ran out of ways of making money out of extraction, the disused pits were sold on and other businesses have since had their monies worth. 

A lot of the gravel and products extracted from Whitlingham were used on the ring road and The Forum in Norwich. Rather than the old pit being turned into a Lakeside, or Bluewater it has been turned back into something more rural and available to the public to use. That use is protected by the charity. 

I still stand by the earlier comment that the land wasn't given to, and then taken back from the BA. They were merely the appointed managing agents for 27 years. It still belongs to the charity and is still available for public use and enjoyment.