BOTH your correspondents Peter Gregory and Graham Peers overstate their case [concerning the introduction of Bridgewater Canal fees] even though I am generally in sympathy, writes Mike Todd.
As it has been so far stated, there is no immediate charge for visiting the Bridgewater Canal as is claimed. The charge is introduced in some, perhaps over-stringent, circumstances. This is very different from the Avon where a licence is needed just to put your bow into the waters.
Licence needed
For example, if you arrive at Stratford on the canal and find that all of the mooring spaces in the basin and its approach have been taken, it is quite easy to drop down through the river lock and find plenty of space on the opposite bank or down by the ferry near the church. However, as signs make it clear, a visitor licence is needed even just to go and take a look!
The opening of a new or restored navigation often changes usage patterns in ways that are not anticipated in the licensing arrangements. Until the opening of the Liverpool Link, it took (from my recollection dating back to the 1970's) an adventurous, maybe even brave, boater to use the section from Burscough and few did. One would certainly not be disadvantaged by a seven day limit! Now, there is rightly a growing demand to use that route and thus more people coming through on the Bridgewater.
To maximise income
The licensing regimes of both CaRT and Peel are distinct and it is not always realistic to try and pick or choose between elements of them. In each case their main consideration will be to maximise income whilst also seeking to achieve secondary objectives (like controlling usage of key assets). Avon, Bridgewater, EA (Thames and elsewhere), CaRT and others all adopt different approaches to visitors, depending on what sort of proportion of the total usage they comprise.
I certainly see very few such licences on boats using the main network but normally licenced elsewhere. On the Thames, there is a useful concession which enables rather rapid passage on and off for a minimum payment. Through transit on the Avon assumes that you will take at least seven days to do so. Peel will not issue licences other than the seven days concession to anyone without a home mooring on their canal. Hence, unlike elsewhere, one month visits become very expensive, if not impossible.
Knee-jerk reaction
Peel's move certainly smells of a knee-jerk reaction to a specific problem and lacks evidence that it was thought through. In particular, what has provoked the largest outcry is the requirement to have a seven days licence if you go off the canal, having entered it, even within the 28 days period. Most such cruising patterns would, on the Avon and the Thames, require two short licences making it even more expensive than Peel's scheme.
The other issue is in regard to the reciprocal arrangement. It is rather strange (but not unknown in international politics!) for one party to impose a unilateral variation in the agreement without even having the decency to arrange some semblance of consultation or negotiation. Peel's approach does run the very risk that the whole concessionary agreement will be cancelled more to the dis-benefit of their moorers than those with a home mooring elsewhere.
Seeking a better outcome
Whilst it is valid to criticise the scheme so cack-handedly introduced, it would be rather misguided to assume that the whole story has yet been written. There is evidence that both CaRT and boater organisations are seeking to engage with Peel to reach a better outcome all round. There is one important difference, however. CaRT, Avon, and to a large extent, EA, are interested directly in running an active navigation network.
Peel's prime interest in taking on the Bridgewater Company was to exploit their redundant land assets and only in some instances does maintaining navigation on the canal add to the asset value. I am not 100% sure but I have seen a claim by one of the boater organisations that there is no longer a right to navigate the Bridgewater so we need to be careful what we wish for!