Ranworth Update

[Lulu]

50 minutes ago, Andrewcook said:

Does this mean it's the beging of the End of Broads Authority Free Moorings in the near future as Neatishead Staithe is now being done up with a huge cost to the Toll payers and others to be kept up such a St Bennetts Abbey / How Hill this is a sad day for us all being on the Broads 

If this happens we will sell and that will be our boating days over. We cannot afford to pay for a mooring each day for the amount of days we are out and about, on the top of all the other costs involved in running a boat. 

[astonsong]

What happens if you don't go to the information center ,who's going to check that you've paid 

[NeilB]

I'm not keen on overnight mooring while packed in like sardines, I'll continue to mudweight and pop over to the pub in the dinghy for a pint and grab a pizza - after 5pm!  The pizza shack in the pub garden is really quite good.

[Chelsea14Ian]

25 minutes ago, astonsong said:

What happens if you don't go to the information center ,who's going to check that you've paid 

When we've  moored at Oulton,Beccles and Norwich. Not moored at GY for many years. At the other three got a ticket which put in the window.Theres always  a few that come in when no ones around  and leave early.Think however there may well be more then a few now.

[JawsOrca]

The BA certainly needs reforming, a 13% increase in tolls and then charging for previous free moorings (Thus removing free moorings from the system) clearly shows an authority which is unfit for purpose and a CEO who is incapable of managing the authority within a budget and he must resign immediately.

[Broads01]

I take a dim view of requests to visit somewhere to pay a mooring fee. Why would you bother, especially as they shouldn't be charging the fee anyway?

The whole "parishiners" issue I find bizarre. If it's about where you live, then make it about proof of address, don't assume everybody goes to church. If it's about where you go to church (I don't), what's that got to do with anything?

[Wonderwall]

Nothing it appears escaped this cost of living crisis . It really is beyond a joke .

The NBN spring meet should cruise en masse, in solidarity and have a wee sit in protest 😂.  Get some banners made 😎, sing some songs 😊, get a few slogans out there 😉.

You might even get on the TV. 😇

Get the message out there , extortionate fuel and food prices we will accept, but mooring fees are a different ball game 😆.

[JawsOrca]

I'm bored, I just had a quick flick through the Bylaws and Broads act and I can't find any bylaws saying you have to pay to use the yacht stations (and Ranworth).. Therefore is this just a polite request to pay? Of which anyone can politely refuse?

[floydraser]

1 hour ago, Wonderwall said:

The NBN spring meet should cruise en masse, in solidarity and have a wee sit in protest 😂.  Get some banners made 😎, sing some songs 😊, get a few slogans out there 😉.

WHAT DO WE WANT?

FREE MOORING!

WHEN DO WE WANT IT?

NOWWWWWWW!!! 

[Wonderwall]

54 minutes ago, floydraser said:

WHAT DO WE WANT?

FREE MOORING!

WHEN DO WE WANT IT?

NOWWWWWWW!!! 

CAN PAY

WON'T PAY

WHEN DON'T WE PAY

EVERYDAY 😋😎😍😅😀

[Vaughan]

A very, very sad day for the future.  I had hoped all along that common sense would prevail before they made this big mistake.  I have seen quite a few recessions on the Broads in my time and one can usually point to the reasons for them.

This is the thin end of the wedge.

[grendel]

I wonder how many prospective mooring fees it cost to buy and install the new signage?

[Vaughan]

6 hours ago, floydraser said:

FREE MOORING!

But it's not free, is it? You have already paid for it in your river toll.

And so have the hire boats.

[grendel]

It seems the BA have branched out into Agriculture - Cash Cow Farming

[Mouldy]

Just think, if the Blessed Authority can’t get their own way and get charging for moorings in at Reedham implemented, they might have to inflate the pricing at Ranworth to compensate for their budgetary shortfall.

Maybe they plan to close the moorings at Ranworth over the winter, as they do at Yarmouth and Norwich, remove the hoses, turn off the taps and shut down the electric posts.

Am I alone in wondering why the BA have had their input on other threads here recently, but have remained noticeably absent from any contribution to justify their actions with regard to mooring charges?

[MargeandParge]

I think that we could mud weight close enough to step ashore with the leccy lead. Two mud weights may have to be deployed. 

Kindest Regards Marge and Parge 

[Bikertov]

31 minutes ago, MargeandParge said:

I think that we could mud weight close enough to step ashore with the leccy lead. Two mud weights may have to be deployed. 

Kindest Regards Marge and Parge 

All you need to do is re-enforce your shore power lead, and then wrap it around the leccy post a couple of times before you plug in.

You are not moored, you are free floating but happen to be pugged into the post.

Job done.

[Vaughan]

This is the text of a letter that I sent by e-mail to Bill Dickson on 21st January, copy to three members of the nav. committee who are boatyard directors :

 

For the attention of the chairman, the Broads Authority.

Subject : An overnight charge on Authority maintained public moorings.

Dear Sir,

I am writing to voice my objection to the Authority's intention to make a charge to boats on their moorings.  My objection has two separate reasons:

1/. As a Broads boat owner and toll payer I cannot see why I must now have to pay an overnight charge on moorings which are leased and maintained by the Authority from the funds from river tolls.  I see this as an un-acceptable double taxation.  This, coming on top of a 13% increase in tolls which is well above present or predicted inflation rates.  In the past we have been asked to accept a high increase for exceptional and "one-off" reasons.  This year no such reason has been offered or explained.

2/. As an ex Broads boatyard owner with a life-time in the boating tourism industry, I am most seriously concerned that such a move will simply discourage hirers of holiday boats, who are already feeling the effects of the current recession and will therefore be another "nail in the coffin" of tourism, upon which the Broads area so vitally depends.

I am most fearful that the Norfolk Broads are "losing their appeal" at this time, to both private boat owners and hirers.  I know from my own experience that the north rivers are just as crowded now as they ever were in the "bad old days" of the 60s.  There are nowhere near enough public moorings, since the demise of all the small boatyard businesses.  Local landowners have caught on to how easy it is to charge for moorings on land which used to be simply a river bank.  Pubs are making the same mistake by actually charging their own customers to moor on their premises. 

Please do not let the Authority make the same drastic mistake of expecting tourists on holiday to fork out "ten Quid" to moor on a B.A. public mooring.  I believe it is called killing the goose, that laid the golden eggs.

Yours sincerely, etc.

 

I know that yours sincerely is not the correct form when using  "Dear Sir"  but the word faithfully, just didn't seem to fit this context.

Suffice to say I have had no reply.

[Meantime]

14 hours ago, CambridgeCabby said:

What they mean (or wish) and the legal definition of a parishioner may well be different , the point is that when they took possession of the staithe they agreed that the moorings would be made available to parishioners (as opposed to residents of the parish) and if the agreement is worded as such then provided it is a parishioner wishing to moor their vessel the moorings should not be charged for otherwise the BA would be in breach .

A Parishioner is a member or resident of the Parish. The Parish is often referred to these days as a subdivision of a county often coinciding with an original ecclesiastical parish and constituting the unit of local government. Remember there are other religions and the BA wouldn't want to discriminate by excluding any religious groups from a free mooring, so I think you'll find it is the later definition that would stand up in court.

In other words you do not have to attend Church, but you should live within the Parish of Ranworth.

Which leads me to ask? What rights do the volunteer rangers or the visitor centre staff have to ask for your address? If I step of my boat and say I'm just popping home to collect a jacket, I'm a Parishioner so do not need to pay, what can they do? They could check the home address of the registered keeper of the boat, but that assumes they are on board. They may have lent their boat to friends. 

[FlyingFortress]

Very good letter Vaughan 👍

[Smoggy]

If you live on your boat and moor up in ranworth does that then mean you live in ranworth up until the time you leave? 

If you are out for a week you are 'living' on the boat.

[FlyingFortress]

Well it looks like my prediction of the charges being quietly dropped as a sop to Stakeholder consultation has not come true 😣

I will hold my hand up and admit I was wrong. 🫣

In my defense I admit I am really quite a gullible chap and I do tend to assume most people are genuine and remotely intelligent until proven otherwise.

I would have thought the way to go about stiffing The Stakeholders would have been to whack them with an eye watering increase in Tolls ( year on year BTW) then pretend they have listened to their Stakeholders and drop the double charging for moorings .

I now feel that an Authority that I have largely supported over the years has lost either it's way or it's common sense. 

It now sees us Boaters as nothing but a cash cow.

[FlyingFortress]

1 hour ago, Mouldy said:

Just think, if the Blessed Authority can’t get their own way and get charging for moorings in at Reedham implemented, they might have to inflate the pricing at Ranworth to compensate for their budgetary shortfall.

Maybe they plan to close the moorings at Ranworth over the winter, as they do at Yarmouth and Norwich, remove the hoses, turn off the taps and shut down the electric posts.

Am I alone in wondering why the BA have had their input on other threads here recently, but have remained noticeably absent from any contribution to justify their actions with regard to mooring charges?

Good post Mouldy 👍

[JawsOrca]

14 minutes ago, Meantime said:

Which leads me to ask? What rights do the volunteer rangers or the visitor centre staff have to ask for your address? If I step of my boat and say I'm just popping home to collect a jacket, I'm a Parishioner so do not need to pay, what can they do? They could check the home address of the registered keeper of the boat, but that assumes they are on board. They may have lent their boat to friends. 

There is a bylaw which states the master should conform to a lawful direction given by the officer of the BA.. So as long as the BA staff in the centre is an officer of the BA and the request is lawful then you have to answer than. (Questions then rise is it a lawful direction to demand your address and are they officers?)..

I suspect in the first year they will be all nicey and hope people will pay. I suspect in the following years someone will come to the boat and demand payment.   

I hope someone with too much money challenges this in court as I can't understand how this can be legally upheld without a bylaw and/or lots of trips to a small claims court.  It feels mr JP is trying his luck here without full legal grounding.

[Vaughan]

39 minutes ago, FlyingFortress said:

Well it looks like my prediction of the charges being quietly dropped as a sop to Stakeholder consultation has not come true 😣

I will hold my hand up and admit I was wrong. 🫣

And so will I.

I would not have shared the text of my letter on the forum if this proposal had been dropped, since I always have the hope (surely we all should?) that that the BA are acting in the best interests of Broadland.  The River Commissioners most certainly did.

Now? I am not so sure.