Joe
Well-Known Member
I see the post below and thought i would put my thoughts here on it all
These groups of boats are all up and down the Thames now and have spread from the canal system over the last 10 years or so.
We never had these problems back then because there were people actually running the Thames.
Since the river police were disbanded the water board ( who used to be the ones that ran most things on the upper Thames ) sold off by the government and the eviorement agency became the bigger body things have slowly got worse and worse.
This includes dredging, island maintanence, bank maintanence etc
At this time most of the older guys that had been running the water ways also left and the lore that they had inherited went with them leaving us with a bunch of retard university graduates to run the river.
These people often have the same outlook on life that the people who have these boats have and there is now a stalemate between the local councils. ( who will have to-re house these people if they are made homeless ) and the agency who should do something about it
The useless evioroment agency has decieded to do nothing about these boats that have no paid moorings on the thames and instead we have the councils and the agency pointing fingers at each other with the privatised water board who are now just a propety company on the river from what i can see just turning a blind eye to anything that happens on land they are responsible for.
There is also a huge lack of affordable moorings which also does not help especially canal boat and larger boat moorings due to the disaperance of the smaller cheaper boatyards and a failure for the Thames to move with the times.
when you add all this up you see the problem.
No one actually wants to do anything about it and most likely wont due to european laws that dont fit here in England
Lots of 24 and 48 hour moorings now have permanent houseboats on them all year round and in the summer people no longer stop at them due to these old boats dumped on them.
You can move these boats on but they just come back and there is just not the will to do anything permanent about it
I can take a run up the river now days and its totally changed with people just doing as they please with little or no interferance from anyone in any authority.
Untill we get a new body other than the agency resposible for the river and the people that use and work on it things wont change and i really cant see us going back to the past.
Where the government looked after things through the water board like they used to
At the end of the day its all about cost and the river is a very low priority and its been left to the people that work and live on the river to police it
Welcome to modern England
Joe
These groups of boats are all up and down the Thames now and have spread from the canal system over the last 10 years or so.
We never had these problems back then because there were people actually running the Thames.
Since the river police were disbanded the water board ( who used to be the ones that ran most things on the upper Thames ) sold off by the government and the eviorement agency became the bigger body things have slowly got worse and worse.
This includes dredging, island maintanence, bank maintanence etc
At this time most of the older guys that had been running the water ways also left and the lore that they had inherited went with them leaving us with a bunch of retard university graduates to run the river.
These people often have the same outlook on life that the people who have these boats have and there is now a stalemate between the local councils. ( who will have to-re house these people if they are made homeless ) and the agency who should do something about it
The useless evioroment agency has decieded to do nothing about these boats that have no paid moorings on the thames and instead we have the councils and the agency pointing fingers at each other with the privatised water board who are now just a propety company on the river from what i can see just turning a blind eye to anything that happens on land they are responsible for.
There is also a huge lack of affordable moorings which also does not help especially canal boat and larger boat moorings due to the disaperance of the smaller cheaper boatyards and a failure for the Thames to move with the times.
when you add all this up you see the problem.
No one actually wants to do anything about it and most likely wont due to european laws that dont fit here in England
Lots of 24 and 48 hour moorings now have permanent houseboats on them all year round and in the summer people no longer stop at them due to these old boats dumped on them.
You can move these boats on but they just come back and there is just not the will to do anything permanent about it
I can take a run up the river now days and its totally changed with people just doing as they please with little or no interferance from anyone in any authority.
Untill we get a new body other than the agency resposible for the river and the people that use and work on it things wont change and i really cant see us going back to the past.
Where the government looked after things through the water board like they used to
At the end of the day its all about cost and the river is a very low priority and its been left to the people that work and live on the river to police it
Welcome to modern England
Joe
