EA Newsletter

[Scapegoat]

EA Newsletter

Navigation update: What’s the latest?
March 2024
Creating a better place for people and wildlife (BOATS?)
Dear Stakeholder
Here is our latest newsletter, updating you on key areas of work and priorities that the National Navigation team
are focussing on, which hopefully you will find useful.
Please feel free to share this with those you represent.
Kind regards
Omoniyi Green and Rachael McFarlane
National Navigation Managers

 

[Mark26]

Thanks for sharing that

 

[Outinthedinghy]

Thank you.

 

[Outinthedinghy]

Interesting to see discussion about too many trees in the waterway.

 

[oldgit]

Thanks for for posting that.


Points of interest.
Visitor registration charges.
The current system is bit clunky and does tend to deter short term visitors.
On the Medway only up for the day / 24 hours and you pay a 24 H rate irrespective.
Boats above 7.6 m £33.09 per day.
Stay for a weekend ie 2 days ands its £66.18.
It cheaper to buy a week ticket at £63,58. E&OE.
Locals do comment the EA registration fee is dissuading them from going upstream for a couple of days , ignoring for the moment all the junk in the river.
Difficult for those of us who enjoy a visit to the Thames to decide on entry how long we will be staying.
A week for some of us can be more than enough but possibly an extended couple of months for one or two retirees .
It surely cannot be beyound the wit of man to have some sort of online registration to fine tune this.
Trees
On the Medway there is usually no half measures, if any decent tree is down it blocks the river, prevents navigation and needs to be shifted pronto.
Have noticed some actual preventative measures being taken down here and stuff that looks likely to be problem is trimmed before it falls.
It not unknown for EA staff to nip down and cull/clear stuff just below the lock, even though strictly it is the responsibilty of PEEL Ports.
Paddles.
It is good to see that organisation changing with the times, rowers no longer predominate people powered craft on the river .
The sheer numbers of canoes, LIDLE/ALDI inflatables, kayaks , paddle / sail boarders/ ( swimmers ? ) using more inexpensive ways of enjoying the the river needs to be appreciated by those who once reigned supreme.
They do not need a labour intensive and capitol hungry lock system to enjoy their hobby.

 

[Outinthedinghy]

Another interesting bit was this.




Growth in residential use and model byelaws seems quite intriguing.

 

[oldgit]

It would apprear that in places such as the Nederlands residential accomodation that floats seems to be accepted as a way of providing homes.
Perhaps with little bit of imagination and legislation we could provide something similar to help eliminate the unsightly and nasty mess now to be found on all stretches of the navigation.
However the howls of protest from the usual suspects will need to be overcome perhaps simply by showing that the accomodation would be of a decent quality and not to the detriment of the area.
A bit to radical perhaps ?
Always considered it curious that some scruffy barge in Chelsea is very BoHo , but one in Kingston is an unsightly slum. ?

 

[Outinthedinghy]

It is an interesting idea. I suspect the substandard accommodation thing might be a problem.

I've lived on various different Boats for 30 years and prefer smaller Boats but not too small. Everything I have lived on would probably be classed as substandard but to me the environment is more important than the space available to live in.

In your neck of the woods the Unicumes lane thing was interesting. I was down there recently (land transport not a Boat) and it seems the council is being quite fierce. One could argue that it would be better if the moorings had just been allowed.

There is an obvious issue around inappropriate development and land use. People on Boats need to avoid using the land or they will get problems.

 

[oldgit]

In your neck of the woods the Unicumes lane thing was interesting. I was down there recently (land transport not a Boat) and it seems the council is being quite fierce. One could argue that it would be better if the moorings had just been allowed.

intially there was one...moored next to a delightful riverside walk.

then came this.
" interesting" is one way of describing it

Note the trees and the lack of footpath.






No permanent landing stages or moorings are permitted.
Not sure about Pergolas .
On the up, the large dumb lighter seems to have been removed or broken free.
Boatone on the same stretch of river a few short years earlier.

 

[Outinthedinghy]

The two large cabin barges in your pictures are still there as are many others.

I did notice the Regents canal lighter had disappeared.

 

[oldgit]

They was a small pedestrian arch under the railway embankment enabling walkers to gain access to the public foot path directly from the housing estate.
One of barge owners decided to turn it into a track wide enough to get a 4 x 4 down to his boat.
Needed a way of getting his fencing/pergolas and other home sweet home materials from B&Q to turn the nearby river bank into a vegetable garden and grotto.
Suspect a few concrete Gnomes in there somewhere as well.
The bloke who bought river bank and divided it into leisure plots "allegedly" went on to do this elsewhere a little further downstram at Halling,
also an eyesore and a mess, many abandoned their plots when they actually found out exactly what they had been sold.