Ralph gives the facts...

Published: Friday, 23 November 2012

WAITING for the predictable responses such as 'it's nonsense—he's imagining things' reply from Canal & River Trust, concerning his intimidation Ralph Freeman thought it time to add a few facts:

In the ten years that I've lived on the Cut I've not had an overstaying notice or any other correspondence of that nature with British Waterways/CaRT, so I'm still at a loss to know what 'the letter' and all it's legalise is about.

For many years I have had mooring arrangements with Barton Marina and of late Aston Marina, where I call in during the summer for 'pit stops' and also buy four months mooring for the winter in case of bad weather. For the above services I pay an agreed fee 12 months in advance.

I consider the details of that arrangement to be a commercial and private matter, but to all intents and purposes I have always had a base or 'home' mooring. The photo shows my boat frozen in on it's home mooring at Aston Marina in February this year.

Is this a problem?

Because I like to wander about the system, particularly in the winter, I may not spend much time on my home mooring. Until recently I thought that was my choice and not a problem. Now I'm not so sure?

Nothing to hide

If BW/CaRT had/have any queries regarding my home moorings or my use of the system, then they only have to ask. I've nothing to hide. I regularly see Patrol Officers when moored on the towpath, so if there was/is something they need to know, why not simply knock on the boat and ask?
Failing that send a letter to my 'mailbox' address or better still email me.

Marina patrols

In many marinas CaRT staff do licence checks on moored boats at regular intervals. If there are any queries regarding who does and does not moor there, why are they not raised with the appropriate member of the marina staff during such inspections?

Phone call

None of that appears to have taken place. Instead I get a phone call from the marina manager saying he has received a rather 'threatening' letter from CaRT and added words to the effect "What have you been up to?" He proceeded to give me the gist of it's content over the phone. Being at a total loss to understand what prompted such a letter, I replied with the following email the following day:

2nd Sept 2012
To:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Re:-Narrowboat Grey Nomad -- 508284

Dear Sir / Madam,

I understand you have queried my mooring arrangements with Aston Marina.
For the last 3 years I have used Aston Marina as my base and moored there for the winter 4 months (November to the beginning of March).
I also moor there for approximately 4 weeks during the summer months for 'pit stops'
To summarise then I spend 7months out on the system and 5 months at Aston Marina. I have done this ever since leaving Barton Marina.
If there is a problem with this mooring arrangement please reply to this E-Mail. I am currently out on the system and will not be collecting my mail for several weeks.

Regards
Ralph Freeman.

I received no acknowledgement or reply to this E-Mail.

Keeping a log

I keep a 'ships' log, which following a Subject Access Request made under the Data Protection Act to CaRT for all the information they hold on me/my boat, I hope to be able to compare my actual movements with the sightings logged by CaRT (and it's contractors?) now held on CaRT's computers. It should make interesting reading?


Unobtrusive observations?

To give you readers a flavour of what has been going on over the last 12 months here are a few extracts from my log:

Feb 2012

Thin ice in marina. Tried to get to Bridge 86 but the ice is too thick after Bridge 88. Passed a BW patrol officer by Bridge 89 who took off his backpack retrieved a camera and proceeded to take photographs of my boat.

(Question: Is it normal to photograph all moving boats in winter these days?)

June 2012

Moored at GH (Gt Haywood). Man and women, not in BW uniforms took photos of the rear of my boat. I asked the man if he was checking moorings or licence? He said "Both". No chance! BW does not work that way.

(Question: Who are these people?)

Late August 2012

Moored on the Coventry Canal at Fradley. A man and a women with bikes stop and take a photos of the rear corner of the boat where the registration number is. Mine is the only boat in the row they photograph. Why?

(Note: Definitely not CaRT personnel)

Early Sept 2012

Moored Fishers Mill Bridge, Birmingham & Fazeley Canal.

Man rides up on bike takes photo of rear of boat. When challenged he just jumped on his bike and rode off at speed.

Emailed Darren Green of Central Shires to ask if he knew of any official surveys on 'his patch'. Received a speedy reply from him saying he was not aware of such an activity. For the record I believe him.

Obtrusive or not?

I'll leave you, dear reader, to decide if you regard such a series of events as 'unobtrusive monitoring' or not? Bear in mind though these are only some of the instances when I have observed my boat being photographed. Obviously I have no idea how many I may have missed. That's why the information requested from CaRT under the Date Protection Act will be most enlightening?

Final thoughts

Just suppose you had an expensive car worth say £40,000 and it was parked on your drive. Someone approached it stealthily, photographed it at close quarters and walked off quickly before you could question them.

On another occasion, when your car was parked in your works car park, a different person walked up to it and photographed it.

Later still, when it was parked in a local supermarket car park, yet another person photographed it.

This time you asked what they were doing but they refused to answer, jumped on a bike, and rode off at speed.

None of these people wore any uniform, carried any obvious I.D. and refused to answer when challenged.

Now what would you do? Ring the police would be my guess? Maybe that is what I should do next time?

As regards Damien Kemp's recent complete denial in narrowboatworld I feel I can't do better than repeat the now famous Mandy Rice-Davies quote:

"Well, he would, wouldn't he?"

Ralph Freeman