EA License Enforcment

[Enterprise6]

Im pleased that the EA are checking liceneses however I wish they would check the boat first before sticking their notice on the boat. I arrived at the boat on Sat to find the dread note stuck to the cabin window however had the enforcement officer had a casual glance on the port side of the boat (which as the boat is marina based he could have done) he would have seen as plain as the nose on his face the current 2011 license which has been there since Jan of this year unobscured by curtains or window covers.

I wonder how many other enforcment notice are incorrectly issued for this sort of reason.

Just had a call back from the nice lady at the EA apologising for their error

 

[Brayman]

Which marina have they got round to checking?

Are they going upriver or down or just random?

 

[Enterprise6]

Im at Harleyford

 

[watson1959]

In the past two weeks I seem to have seen them very frequently at Shiplake, Sonning, Reading & Mapledurham ......perhaps just co-incidence but there does seem more activity: if it's targetted correctly I'm all for it.

Pain in the aft quarters when it's careless like that.

 

[boatone]

Pain in the aft quarters when it's careless like that.

Why not give them a break? At least they are getting on with the job

 

[Chris_d]

Which marina have they got round to checking?

Are they going upriver or down or just random?

You sound concerned has that photo copy started to fade

 

[Brayman]

You sound concerned has that photo copy started to fade

I don't know about the photocopy but last years original certainly faded!

 

[watson1959]

Why not give them a break? At least they are getting on with the job

Not complaining B1: if a traffic warden puts a ticket on my windscreen when I have a valid ticket showing......he's not doing his job properly and it's me that has to make the effort to fix it.

 

[dash300]

They will have their work cut out just before the Teddington Lock cut its heaving down there - Dale Farm on Thames!
All credit to the enforcement teams.

 

[Steve Clayton]

They are only out and about because it's warm. If it was colder.........

 

[the_wanderer]

Forward facing window?

Hi.

That was a bit careless of the enforcement squad.

Perhaps we could all help by positioning the license plate on a forward facing window. This would help the squad and the lock keepers when checking.

Regards.

Alan.

 

[Brayman]

I thought we were instructed to put it on a forward facing window on the port side. That's where mine has always been.

 

[Captain Coochie]

How can you have a forward facing window on the side ?

 

[Brayman]

How can you have a forward facing window on the side ?

I'll leave you to work out how you do it, but you will have to think in three dimensions!

 

[captain tomas]

If it's forward facing or upside down, I'm just greatfull that the E.A is
making an effort to catch the freeloaders.
According to some sources, a quarter of a million pounds, is lost annually, due to license evasion.

 

[temptress]

Will thye actually do ANYTHING?

Im pleased that the EA are checking liceneses however I.....

Glad to hear this. I was Bosun of a Thames based YC and we had (and continue to have) problems with unlicensed boats.

My real question ius WILL THEY ACTUALLY DO ANYTHING about the unlicensed boats or are they just trying to jack up revenues by checking easy targets in marinas.

Where I was we were constantly battling with unlicensed boats using our own moorings and living on our reach - the EA did absolutely nothing apart form issuing notices to 'GET a LICENCE' over and over again to the same boats......

 

[boatone]

My real question is WILL THEY ACTUALLY DO ANYTHING about the unlicensed boats or are they just trying to jack up revenues by checking easy targets in marinas.

I can confirm that they are, indeed, doing something. I understand that well over 500 enforcement notices have been issued since April this year and that several prosecutions are pending.
In fact, it is only recently that they have started checking marinas - Enterprise6's post starting this thread is the first positive information I have seen that says they are finally doing so. Earlier efforts appear to have been targeted at bank-side moored boats - particularly in the areas of Teddington/Kingston, Reading and Oxford.

I understand that over 50% of those served with enforcement notices pay up without a fuss but the remainder require further action and there are only limited resources within the EA to pursue this work. It can take many months to reach the prosecution stage, not to mention the labour involvement and costs associated with doing so.

The TMBA has been actively pursuing this matter with the EA (as indeed have many others) and they do appear to be ramping up their efforts. I heard quite recently that several additional river staff will shortly start training to become warranted enforcement officers.

At a customer charter sub-group meeting earlier this year I asked the EA managers if they would be pursuing unlicensed craft 'without fear or favour' and they assured us that this would be the case.

 

[Chill]

Are the EA still in the Stone Age! with modern technology they should have a laptop or hand held PDA with all registered boat names on...simples!

Chill

 

[boatone]

Are the EA still in the Stone Age! with modern technology they should have a laptop or hand held PDA with all registered boat names on...simples!

You may think that but I couldn't possible comment

 

[Chris_d]

Are the EA still in the Stone Age! with modern technology they should have a laptop or hand held PDA with all registered boat names on...simples!

Chill

Or even a paper list in alphabetical order, a year old list is on the internet