https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/23465290.standoff-canal-river-trust-tries-evict-boater/
Live updates as the Canal and River Trust try to evict a recidivist boater. My experience of people who live on boats (Mr L has an amusing term for them), based on a grim canal holiday, is that they are among the most "difficult" people you are likely to encounter, and resent the rest of the world.
Oi!
I used to live on boats. (Yes, plural, I had a boat-buying addiction.)
Please don't lump all boat-dwellers in the 'aqua-pikey' category, it is quite offensive. A bit like saying that all people who live in caravans are thieving violent aresholes.
I've lived on mooring strings alongside aformentioned aquapikeys and it was horrible.
I feel duty bound to explain some things here about CRT and licencing.
There are basically 2 sorts of licence you can have for an inland boat;
Continuous cruiser
Permanent mooring.
A continuous cruiser can only moor up for a period of up to two weeks. They must make attempts to be 'navigating' around the system (this is to stop people just shuttling up and down a couple of miles).
Permanent moorers pay mooring fees, usually for a specific location. This can be in a private marina or on a CRT mooring. That is on top of a licence fee.
Apart from the additional expense of mooring fees, there is a massive problem of there simply not being enough moorings. CRT have used multiple methods of massively jacking up the costs of moorings, plus they have shut down many previous residential moorings (in theory you aren't permitted to live aboard at a non-residential mooring). Being on a residential mooring implies lots of things, including paying council tax (in a marina, the marina will pay this and it is part of your fees).
So, you get quite a few people like 'George'. They don't have a mooring. They don't have permission to reside there. They pay the continuous cruiser fee and shuffle about a bit. While they have my sympathy (many of them would pay for a permanent residential mooring if one were available at anything close to a reasonable price), they are also a pain for people who just want to use the system. Genuine continuous cruisers get to a canal and find the entire bank lined with boats that never move - even though they are in 'temporary' locations. Nowhere to stop.
'George' has a heritage boat, and was in the middle of doing restorations. He had materials and tools on the canal bank while he was doing his work.
CRT know that if they get rid of George, they can rent the mooring for far more to a person who wants a permanent mooring for their holiday boat. They own the canal bank, so they take George's materials and tools away. Is this theft? Erm, yes. Removal of items with intent to permanently deprive.
So, while I wouldn't want to live next to George's mess, he has my sympathy.
CRT will likely lift out two 120-year-old heritage boats, that should be restored and crush them.
If they were old historic buildings being knocked down for modern flats, we'd be furious.
