Mooring auction petition

Published: Thursday, 09 October 2014

WITHIN hours of the narrowboatworld article being published calling for Canal and River Trust's mooring auctions to be scrapped (Scrap them both) a petition has been started asking Cart's Trustees to withdraw its mooring consultation, writes Allan Richards.

It reads ‘The signatories to this petition call on the Trustees of the Canal and River Trust to withdraw their current consultation and only to re-issue it, once it includes an option to measure support for scrapping the policy of allocating vacant moorings to the highest bidder'.

NABO & RBOA

The petition was started by Simon Robbins who points out that there has been consistent opposition to mooring auctions from the outset by organisations such as the National Association of Boat Owners (NABO) and the Residential Boat Owners Association (RBOA).

The petition not only reiterates that 'The APPWG [All Party Parliamentary Waterways Group] believes that this policy needs to be reviewed to encourage more diversity on the waterways' (as stated in the narrowboatworld article) but also points out that this is not the first time that this recommendation has been made.

Moor or less

The petition points out that almost a year ago the Environment Committee at the Greater London Authority criticised CaRT in its report ‘Moor or Less: Moorings on London's Waterways' saying ‘CaRT should review its system of auctioning moorings, and seek a system that is fairer to those using and contributing to the waterway network'.

So why has CaRT started a consultation that specifically states that it does not intend to replace mooring auctions with a fairer system?

The petition.