Idiotic new licence rules?

THE Canal & River Trust proposes on 1st April (wish it was an April Fool, but alas not) to amend the Boat Licence conditions so that boat licences will only be renewed if a mooring is available for the entire period of the licence, writes Stuart Field. This reads:

1.5 ‘Home Mooring' is a mooring or other place
which will be available throughout the period of
the Licence where we are satisfied that the Boat
can reasonably be kept and may lawfully be left
when not being used for cruising.

For which the following 'Plain English' explanation is provided:

We've included the words ‘...which will be
available throughout the period of the licence...'
to ensure you know that if you buy a licence for a
boat with a Home Mooring then the mooring
needs to be available for that boat for the
duration of the licence'.

Overlooked the seriousness

While some of the other changes have been commented on, people seem to have overlooked the seriousness of this one:

* What will happen when boat licence renewal dates are not the same as mooring renewal dates? I have asked the local moorings officer about this, and I am awaiting a reply. As it stands, it looks like anyone whose mooring is due to run out before their boat licence will not be allowed to declare a Home Mooring and will be treated as a Continuous Cruiser if they moved more than 20km from their mooring, and potentially refused a licence altogether if they moved less than 5km from their mooring last year!

* If CaRT are in dispute with a marina owner, they will be able to refuse new licences or treat as Continuous Cruisers everyone who keeps boats there if they are not "satisfied" that the boats can be kept there for the period of the licence (typically 12 months).

* The same thing could happen if planning issues threaten the future of a mooring site.

* The same thing could happen if you have an end of garden mooring but your house is up for sale.

* If you rent a private mooring and the mooring owner wants to get rid of you, he/she could contact CaRT and persuade them to refuse to re-licence your boat and/or licence you as a Continuous Cruiser.

Will distance rules apply

In all of these cases, will the distance rules apply? While moving 5km or 20km in a year is very little, if someone already has a mooring and doesn't move their boat much, but the mooring has say 10 months left to run and the boat licence 12 months, what will happen?

Will they be licensed as a Continuous Cruiser if they moved more than 20km and refused a licence altogether if they stayed at their mooring the previous year? Or will they be required to move 20km in the 10 months before their mooring expires? Or in the two months after it expires?

Result in legal action

I believe this is a substantial change to the terms and conditions, and could in some cases result in legal action where people have spent a lot of money on moorings only to be told that they will be treated as Continuous Cruisers when there is less than a year to run on their mooring agreements. Here in London, for example, some residential moorings have gone for over £10,000 a year at auction, i.e. over £30,000 for the three years period of the licence.

If the new rules pressurise people to cut short mooring agreements in their final year to get them in line with boat licence periods, CaRT could be facing a lot of legal challenges, potentially running into millions of pounds.