River Closures

They are quite prepared to see their staff numbers drop by voluntary or even enforced redundancies, rent or sell the lockies houses out whatever they can get away with, put our registration fees up by many times inflation and so on...because there is no cash apparently...

..whilst these events go on with no charge to the organisations running them.
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The only bit of this that is true is that there is a lack of money - due to the government reductions in grant funding and years of underfunding in the past.

To the best of my knowledge there have been no redundancies - voluntary or enforced - amongst EA Thames staff and I understand they are trying hard to avoid them.
5 currently empty lock houses are being let as short term lets to bring in extra income pro tem but there is no question of them being sold.

Registration Fees have NOT risen by many times inflation - this year the rise is CPI (inflation ) + 2% and that formula is intended to apply in 2013 and 2014. That will take us up to the decision as to whether or not the Thames Navigation responsibility is passed over to the C&RT - either way we can expect a different charging regime after that, methinks!
You might not wish to look too closely at present day value of 1932 Thames Conservancy licence and lock fees compared to what we pay today !

All the rowing boats participating in the rowing events pay their Thames registration fee just like the rest of us. There is some argument as to whether they pay enough - and the support and rescue craft pay nothing - but that is a different issue and one the TMBA are intent on pursuing.
 
boatone said:
To the best of my knowledge there have been no redundancies - voluntary or enforced - amongst EA Thames staff and I understand they are trying hard to avoid them.
5 currently empty lock houses are being let as short term lets to bring in extra income pro tem but there is no question of them being sold.
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Not for the want of trying as you well know! But after the Sell off debacle all eyes are on them and they know it.

boatone said:
Registration Fees have NOT risen by many times inflation - this year the rise is CPI (inflation ) + 2% and that formula is intended to apply in 2013 and 2014.
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You know full well they wanted to put it up by 13% for the next 3 years. Its only by lobbying and complaining by "our mutual friend" and your good self that they backed down on that one.

boatone said:
All the rowing boats participating in the rowing events pay their Thames registration fee just like the rest of us. There is some argument as to whether they pay enough - and the support and rescue craft pay nothing - but that is a different issue and one the TMBA are intent on pursuing.
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What has that got to do with my point? My point was that ANY EVENTS on the river should be charged for by the EA. Swimmers dont have a licence or should we measure them up for height and arm span and stick one on their....

If an organisation wants to cordon off the river for anything cough up..

Does anyone fancy organising a Pooh Sticks competion on henley bridge? I think we will need the river closed for 50 yards either side. A weekend in mid June would be good.
I am assuming there will be no charge for the pleasure?
 
Bit apples and oranges though Mike. You cannot really compare a weekend in March with one in June.

If it had been the usual bleak March weather instead of a sunny Saturday I suspect few motorboaters would have known (or cared) about the closure.


The "out of season" aspect is covered by the EA regulations.
 
Ramage said:
Bit apples and oranges though Mike. You cannot really compare a weekend in March with one in June.

If it had been the usual bleak March weather instead of a sunny Saturday I suspect few motorboaters would have known (or cared) about the closure.


The "out of season" aspect is covered by the EA regulations.
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So charge less for March, but charge something! (They are supposed to be hard up..)
 
Absolutely. There should be a proportional charge. This would also apply to Club activities, ATYC activities etc. Still keen?

Perhaps those in the Jubilee event should pay the PLA for the disruption.

The Olympics should pay for screwing up London & Dorney Reach, but will they?
 
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Ramage said:
Absolutely. There should be a proportional charge. This would also apply to Club activities, ATYC activities etc. Still keen?
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Of course, Club and ATYC already pay our way and adhere to rules on the river so it will be business as normal...

But i would qualify that in that the fee should be the same for everyone based on the time of year, how much obstruction etc etc

not Motorboats pay £X and Other groups pay £X /10 - would not put it past them!
 
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The EA appointed a Commercial Manager late last year to specifically address opportunities for increasing income.

There are strict Treasury rules in place that define what the EA and other government bodies van levy charges for and these work both in our favour - limiting their ability to hammer us left right and centre - and, in this case, against us as they cannot just decide to charge for something, however justified, just because they feel like it.
Simply put, the EA is only entitled to charge for provision of "Navigation Services" which does not apply to many of the events people are complaining about. This is also why the income from Henley RR is so low - they are only able to recover costs incurred e.g. no actual contributory income.

As far as this years increases in licence fees are concerned, government decreed that they should not increase the regulatory burden on business. hence the freeze in rates for commercial craft for three years.

Apollo quote intentions of rises up to 13% but this is not strictly true ,either. There were discussions with user groups as to the level of rise that should be applied and the final figure was set at CPI+2% for the three years from 2012.
As far as I am aware this was simply a sensible recognition of a 'reasonable' increase given the current circumstances.
 
boatone said:
The EA appointed a Commercial Manager late last year to specifically address opportunities for increasing income.


There are strict Treasury rules in place that define what the EA and other government bodies van levy charges for and these work both in our favour - limiting their ability to hammer us left right and centre - and, in this case, against us as they cannot just decide to charge for something, however justified, just because they feel like it.
Simply put, the EA is only entitled to charge for provision of "Navigation Services" which does not apply to many of the events people are complaining about. This is also why the income from Henley RR is so low - they are only able to recover costs incurred e.g. no actual contributory income.
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=So manager has done diddly squat. About par for the course.

boatone said:
Apollo quote intentions of rises up to 13% but this is not strictly true ,either. There were discussions with user groups as to the level of rise that should be applied and the final figure was set at CPI+2% for the three years from 2012.
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Bollox and you know it. Not talking about what it ended up as, talking about where their opening gambit started and that was widely known to be 13%....
And only after lobbying by Sir Mike and chums, did that get changed.
 
boatone said:
You really should apply for a job with The Sun or Mirror :D

(Oh, and I hope they give you more than a couple of months to settle into post before kicking you out for under achieving !)
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As you know i work in a job with no notice period at all, hence I am very used to having to deliver something every day.

Its a shame others are not.

There are millions out of work, either the dude does his job or lets save a salary.
 
boatone said:
Reaction from the rowers?
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The rowers were all pretty quiet about it, being as they were racing and didn't have time to waste on him. However every safety boat that passed him told him to slow down, which he did... until he was out of sight of them.

The coaches and spectators were all shouting at him to slow down, to little effect.

It was only when he realised that I'd been filming him for the past half hour that he decided to slow down a bit.... But not before an EA boat came past and told him to slow down.

I remember him being fairly insistent that the rules were 8 knots, despite being shown the signs on ravens ait saying otherwise.
 
boatone said:
Two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon - hardly "most of the day" and the "brief" opening at lunchtime was an hour which is plenty of time to transit the stretch in question.

Annoying, I agree, but we are not the only river users and have to recognise the needs of others.

Through the TMBA I have been raising concerns about issues like this and suggesting that there may be a case for a charge to be levied where an event requires a river closure. Unfortunately, whenever I suggest anything that might mean a more substantial financial contribution from the rowing fraternity I am usually shouted down as being anti sport etc.
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I would say the 2 hours between 1030 and 1230 and the 2 hours between 13.30 and 15.30 constitute the majority of any normal boaters Saturday. Granted I could have taken my guests out in the dark with little interruption from rowers, but I'm not sure they would have appreciated that.

Jokes aside and given that I have now been exposed by Ramage I have to say I was annoyed by the closure but respected it. I did not start my passage upstream until 12.30. As I approached Tamesis Rowing club just downstream of Steven's Ait there were a number of rowing skiffs in the middle of the river, but there was space down the right hand side. I proceeded upstream past the rowers. One boat decided this was the perfect time to cross my bows in order to reach the bank. I had to stop and manoeuvre around him. A man with a loud hailer bellowed at me that I should get off the river as it is closed. I shouted back "no it isn't" and continued on my merry way.

As I approached Steven's Ait (Eyot or whatever it's called) there were 2 rowing 4's approaching, one behind the other. I kept to the right bank. The rear rowing 4 decided to overtake the other one. This forced me dangerously close to the bank and the boats oars came within inches of my boat. A woman on the ait with another loud hailer shouted at me to get out of the way as the river was closed (It was 12.45 by this time). I carried on with the odd rower coming down river. Approaching Kingston bridge I always take the centre arch and this time wasn't going to be any different. There were some rowers in the distance but they were not going to reach the bridge before I was through and they could easily take any of the inner arches anyway. Again I was greeted with a loud hailer wielding woman shouting at me to get over to the far bank and go through the arch near the house boats. I stood my ground and continued on, not impeding the progress of any rowers at all.

By this time I was thinking it was me that was in the wrong and I had got the times wrong. An approaching EA boat then allayed my fears by giving me a friendly wave as I went past Surbiton.

I'm sure someone will correct my if I'm wrong, but is the river kept open during the largest rowing event on the Thames - The Henley Regatta? If so, why is Kingston so special!!

I've written to Matt Carter and await a response within the next 10 days.
 
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