I HAVE just seen a picture of the two mainstays of the self-styled National Bargee Travellers Association, waving placards about an eviction, writes James Henry.
You can all guess what this is about—one of its members being thrown off the waterways, but of course the placard does not give the reason for the eviction, that the person was there on a continuous cruiser licence but of course was not cruising and having no intention of so doing. (Picture below by courtesy of Wiltshire Times.)
The last thing they want to do
What amazes me is that it dares to include the word 'travellers' in its name, when that is the last thing any of them want to do. To me it is just an organisation set up to attempt to thwart the rules of continuous cruisers by getting anyone who cares to listen that the bargees are being persecuted for staying in one place, and of course that well known chestnut of children being unable to attend school is always put forward and of course the boaters being unable to get to work—or more likely to the Social Service office.
Like I understand many of your contributors, I too am now a continuous cruiser, having retired two year ago and taken up a continuous cruising licence, and can honestly state that I have never stayed more than 14 days in any one place—I don't really want to. Of course I have met many more of the same ilk, and without exception all decry those who illegally stay in one place/area on such a licence, with no intention of moving, yet complain when they are found out, and cry 'foul' when they are turfed off, as all them should be who will not abide with the rules they signed-up to.
Stuck on best moorings
But what is so annoying to me, and to those others who I have spoken to who abide by the rules, is that there are those bargees stuck for ever on the best moorings, whilst we have to scramble about to find somewhere to moor. It is just not good enough. Just like the boat moored for 36 days on the 36 hours moorings in March on your picture. I bet he's one of those bargees!
It really is about time that Canal & River Trust stopped messing about with wildlife and cycle tracks and poetry and other such waste and did something about them.