Current Consultations

Draft stoppage communications charter

This is not a formal public consultation but if you would like to submit comments on this document, please email consultations@britishwaterways.co.uk before 1st June 2010.

Update on mooring and licence consultations, 2009/10

These consultations are now closed for comment. We are grateful for all the feedback submitted and a report summarising this is now available for download. The report is available as either a PowerPoint slide show (4MB) or a PDF (13MB).

Please note that some of the text in the report is small, due to the detailed responses we received. Therefore if you are viewing the report on a small screen, such as a laptop, it is advisable to download the PDF version and use the zoom control buttons on the toolbar to enlarge the document to an easily readable size. You can also review the individual responses in a zip file (16MB).

We are very grateful to the team of volunteer assessors who analysed the 160 responses to the mooring policy consultation (personal information has been removed from each response to protect personal privacy)

We are working with leading national boating organisations to develop recommendations based on the consultation feedback.

There were 98 responses to the consultation on developing local mooring strategies and a report will be published shortly. Individual responses are published in a zip file (8 MB), again with personal information removed.

There were 57 responses to the licence fee consultation which covered changes to payment discounts, a charge for payment by credit (not debit) cards and the future of the Explorer licence. Decisions will be announced during June 2010.

(a) Public Consultation on moorings policies, 1st November 2009 – 31st January 2010

The aims of this consultation were to:

• improve understanding of the complex issues associated with management of moorings on BW’s 2,000 mile historic waterway network in England and Wales
• invite feedback on new policy proposals which we have developed with help from national boating organisations

Download

(b) Public consultation on proposals for creating local mooring strategies: 17th November 2009 to 31st January 2010

This is best read in conjunction with the paper (a). The aim of consultation (b) is to invite feedback on the mechanics of how we should develop local mooring strategies. These are proposed as a means of ensuring that, as boating use of the waterways increases, scarce space along the line of the canal is shared fairly between waterway users and general amenity protected for all to enjoy

We have proposed the western end of the Kennet & Avon Canal as a good candidate for the first of two or three pilot projects to develop local mooring strategies during 2010. The lessons learned from these will inform the wider use of this approach in other parts of the BW network.

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We expect the consultations to be of interest to:

• boat owners, particularly those who live aboard their boat (or are considering doing so)
• the boating trade, particularly operators of commercial boats for hire, passenger boats or moorings
• anglers
• other frequent waterway users
• people living close to waterways, particularly in residential areas
• waterside businesses
• parish councillors
• local authority planning, environment and housing departments
• statutory and third sector organisations concerned with civic amenity, housing, heritage, environment and of course, inland waterways.

Pre-consultation

We have developed the ideas in this paper with the help of many representatives of boating and boating trade organisations. The subject was debated with a sub group of the British Waterways Advisory Forum in summer 2008. We subsequently tabled an early pre-consultation draft at the meeting of our national ‘waterway users special interest group’ in April 2009, and then held meetings with leading representatives to work through many points of detail. We are particularly grateful to the Residential Boat Owners Association for their help in developing part 2 of the paper including joint consumer research into residential mooring demand and preferences that provided important data to underpin our proposals. We have continued to consider comments received on an ad hoc basis since these meetings.

Responding to the consultations

Please use the appropriate response form for each consultation.

(a) Moorings policy for BW’s network in England & Wales, 1st Nov.’09 – 31st Jan.'10. Click here for response form

(b) Proposals for developing local mooring strategies, 17th Nov. ’09 – 31st Jan '10 Click here for response form

We prefer responses by email to consultation@britishwaterways.co.uk. Please use this feedback form.

Otherwise, please post them to:

British Waterways Mooring Consultation
64 Clarendon Road
Watford
WD17 1DA

Some files are in PDF format, please click here to download the software.