2014 Whats Planned ?

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oldgit

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Can Thames users at last start to look forward to the new season,are water levels going back to where you can start to plan a trip or two ?
Down here we have some early stuff planned such as a cruise to Burnham in April and St Kats in May.Our Thames marathon is pencilled in for mid summer and Ramsgate for the end of August.
We are praying for a settled spell for Burnham as it has been cancelled in previous years due to "weather".
Assuming that Thames bankside facilities will all still be there to use.
Will the doom and gloom of the last winter and alleged lack of wonga mean lots of vacant free mooring spaces and deserted locks for visiting boats ?
 
oldgit said:
Can Thames users at last start to look forward to the new season,are water levels going back to where you can start to plan a trip or two ?
Down here we have some early stuff planned such as a cruise to Burnham in April and St Kats in May.Our Thames marathon is pencilled in for mid summer and Ramsgate for the end of August.
We are praying for a settled spell for Burnham as it has been cancelled in previous years due to "weather".
Assuming that Thames bankside facilities will all still be there to use.
Will the doom and gloom of the last winter and alleged lack of wonga mean lots of vacant free mooring spaces and deserted locks for visiting boats ?
Click to expand...

Is that burnham in Buckinghamshire or on sea?
 
Well, after yesterdays so called Customer Charter meeting at EA Towers, I can tell you that "Whats Planned" is not pretty, at least as far as lock keeper service delivery is concerned. It is clear that the EA are not interested in customers expectations even though boaters contributions through registration fees exceeds the total navigation salary bill. Assisted lock passage service likely to be be significantly reduced for this coming season.
I thought government cuts were supposed to improve efficiency without reducing services - what a farce!
http://www.tmba.org.uk/18th-march-2014-tmba-rejects-ea-thames-service-level-proposals/

If anyone is going to the ATYC AGM this evening you can expect it to be a lively meeting!

democracyendshere.jpg
 
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Some Thames boaters seem to have come to regard a certain level of service as a right, rather than something to be enjoyed while the going was good.
While the Thames user groups remain so divided in their aims and many boaters on the Thames proudly announce their antipathy towards structured groups fighting for their interests , there is little chance that the EA can fight its corner regards funding . ?
The Thames is finally being dragged into the 21st century and the purse is empty.
 
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If boater's contributions pay (more than) the Navigation Salary bill, is it not reasonable to expect a reasonable level of service? Who pays the piper should call the tune! With the demographic of Thames Licence holders being an ageing one, poor service levels will inevitably lead to fewer boaters, thus leaving the navigation to illegal river pikeys and itinerant visitor types from the muddy creek down east of London.
 
I agree with both B1 (nice seamless photoshop there) and OG.
The future for Thames users is going to be bleak. Every one have benefitted from increasing levels of service over the last few years and take that for granted.

Trying to marshall users into joining TMBA (or whatever) is a near impossible task. Boaters that I have spoken to on my peregrinations have either said "we don't use the locks" (?? FFS) or simply not interested in joining a group - even when it was free.

I'll stick my neck out to say that someone, somewhere in EA Thames cares for the river - over the years that we've been 'resident' on the River, the lock service has grown from what-we-may-expect-this-season to all day and summer hours service in the last two years at least. When there's limited funds available, something has to give, in this case it's going to be what's seen to be a luxury. Lockies provide much more than an assisted passage and weir keeping service, but that's not part of their job. Without resident, or if must, local lockies the River will be as sad as the ditchy system. I've said that before.

Making comments on this forum is largely preaching to the converted - what is needed is getting the message to the user public at large and hopefully support in numbers.
 
Ramage said:
If boater's contributions pay (more than) the Navigation Salary bill, is it not reasonable to expect a reasonable level of service? Who pays the piper should call the tune! With the demographic of Thames Licence holders being an ageing one, poor service levels will inevitably lead to fewer boaters, thus leaving the navigation to illegal river pikeys and itinerant visitor types from the muddy creek down east of London.
Click to expand...

Going to guess that B1 is giving a rather "careful" interpretation of what your licence fees are covering.
It may be covering the day to day wages of the lockies,how about back office staff, suspect there is a long list of other expences in the background,not the least will be any pension liabilities,NI,running expences of offices,transport etc and what about maintaince of lock houses and other stuff ?

Still getting the feeling some folks have no idea of how well off they have been in the past compared to every other navigation in the land.
B1 has been warning of this for ages and righteous indignation aint going to make it go away !
 
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oldgit said:
Going to guess that B1 is giving a rather "careful" interpretation of what your licence fees are covering.
It may be covering the day to day wages of the lockies,how about back office staff, suspect there is a long list of other expences in the background,not the least will be any pension liabilities,NI,running expences of offices,transport etc and what about maintaince of lock houses and other stuff ?
Click to expand...
My comment was considered and, I believe, accurate enough to be valid - but no matter. The biggest problems we have are that, at least in my most humble opinion, 1) Budgets are being squeezed quite viciously and 2) the EA see the majority of river users as being reasonably happy with the standard of service they have provided over the last couple of years. Apparently complaints have fallen and they are also realising that the various user groups actually only represent a minority of boaters - their survey last year suggested that less than 1 in 3 belong to any club or organisation.

Actually, I tend to agree that most boaters have been quite satisfied with the service supplied over the last two years and I, for one, would be quite happy if that standard could be maintained. Unfortunately it now looks as if it can not be. GMB union claimed 90 lockies jobs were at risk but there are in fact only 40 residents today and under 20 area reliefs in full time employment. That makes less than 60 bodies out of a total EA Thames Navigation complement of less than 100 - the other 40 or so being line managers, team leaders, enforcement team and registration etc. Take into account reasonable holiday entitlements, some inevitable sickness and training time and there clearly are simply not enough people to cover the ideal scenario. Some seasonal reliefs will be brought on board for the coming season but fewer and for a shorter period and there will be no Summer Assistants hired this year so the volunteers will hold the key to whatever enhanced service can be made available. There also appear to be problems recruiting volunteers for some locks, in particular above Oxford, and I believe boaters on the upper reaches are understandably annoyed that they are receiving a poorer level of service than those of us further downriver.
 
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I'd be interested to know what they intend to do about the services provided at the locks? Showers, toilets, paid overnight mooring and alike.
Are all these going to be maintained, most of them seem to run different systems of payment, cash, tokens, free to use.
They seem all the more important above Oxford where its a lot more rural and most of the boats are smaller.
 
prof pat pending said:
I'd be interested to know what they intend to do about the services provided at the locks? Showers, toilets, paid overnight mooring and alike.
Are all these going to be maintained, most of them seem to run different systems of payment, cash, tokens, free to use.
They seem all the more important above Oxford where its a lot more rural and most of the boats are smaller.
Click to expand...
No reason to believe there will be any lack of attention to these issues. The EA seem to have grasped the need for ensuring collecting every pound they can has to be a priority.
 
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