British Waterways Licence Fee Petition
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This discussion topic has been automatically created of petition British Waterways Licence Fee Petition.
Mike from Limington Guest |
#1 This is an excellent petition2011-03-24 14:42While I don't yet own a boat, it is my dream to do so, and to live aboard. I've been taking narrowboat holidays for over a decade, and watching the licensing and mooring fees skyrocket. This latest pricing scheme makes me wonder just what sort of incompetent group is coming up with these truly inequitable ideas. How much are these people getting paid? And, most importantly, how can people with a more equitable orientation be put into place? |
Guest |
#2 Re: This is an excellent petition2011-03-25 21:22#1: Mike from Limington - This is an excellent petition Hi Mike, Glad you like the petition & thanks for your positive comments. Please spread the word as we need more signatures, of course you can still sign if you wish but leave your details out. Kind regards, George. |
Guest |
#3 A couple of practical suggestions2011-05-10 22:09If you only need a 3 or 6 month licence for the summer, a get-around for the moment might be to buy a 12 month licence and cash in the unused months later in the year. The BW terms and conditions online are still those from 2008 which allow sensible, if not quite pro-rata, refund percentages. Alternatively (and not well-advertised by BW) all boaters who have not transgressed in the past now have the option of paying for a 12 month licence in monthly installments, I believe without the need for a credit check and without paying the more expensive direct debit payments. Don't forget anyone can ask for a BW payment card so to make payments easily at Post Offices and other PayPoint shops. Neither option excuses the gross increases forced on us short-term licence customers to subsidise the licence-evaders, but I hope these suggestions may help some boaters for the moment while we try to get a u-turn. |
Guest |
#4 British Waterways Licence Fee Petition2011-06-13 21:1710 June 2011 Thank you to everyone who supported the petition. I cannot contact you all individually but wish to share the following response from BW received today. They have upheld the complaint & it looks as if they are now going to have to revisit their pricing policy & implementation practices. Dear Mr Cutting Further to our previous e mail correspondence I am now in a position to respond to your second level complaint. Please accept mmy apologies for the delay in doing so but as I think you are aware I have had to consult with a number of colleagues, several of whom, myself included, have been away from the office for various reasons. Your compplaint centres around what you consider to be an excessive increase in the 6 mmonth licence feee of 49% as compared to last year. In her first level response to you, my colleaggue Sally Ash confirmed that this increase efffectively returned the pricing structure for our shorter term licences to that which existed in 2003, and she explained that our costs in administering short term licences were proportionately higher. She went on to explain a number of mitigation measures we were now proposing to reduce the cost of a 6 month licence. She also described the favourable cost comparisons between the cost of a BW licence and that of other navigation authorities. You remained dissatisfied with her response and referred your complaint to be dealt with at the second levvel under British Waterways (BW) internal complaints procedure. In looking at your complaint I think it would be inappropriate for me to dictate what our pricing policy for licences should be and how individual types of licence should be priced. This is best done by others who are better qualified than I. I have passed a copy of the proposals suggested in your e mail to me dated 28th April to colleagues so that they are aware of your thoughts on pricing. However I think it is right that I should look at the fairness of what BW are proposing by way of the increase in fees. I do not think there is any dispute about the facts i.e. the effect of our revised scale of licence fees effective from 1st April 2011 is to increase the cost of a 6 month licence to you by 49%. I am advised that the usual processes for notifying our customers of the proposed licence fee increases was followed by BW and that you have no complaint about that, although in the subsequent e mail correspondence with BW you have expressed dissatisfaction about how some of the price mitigation measures that were introduced post consultation have been publicised. If you would like me to deal with this issue as part of your complaint as well please let me know. Turning to the substantive issue of the price increases I have had much discussion with colleagues about this, and also the subsequent measures already introduced by BW to mitigate the increase in costs which resulted from feedback to our consultation exercise. As explained in Sally’s first level response BW have agreed to a 20% discount off the new higher priced 3 and 6 month licences for people who can provide evidence that their boat has a home mooring on a different navigation authority’s waters or that it is kept out of the water. In addition we have extended our instalment payment terms so that people can purchase an annual licence by spreading the cost over 12 months. In my opinion these measures indicate that BW has listened to and recognised the concerns raised by our customers in response to the consultation exercise on licence fees, and have reacted fairly and appropriately by introducing the changes described above. However it does not seem to me that the BW response has been even handed in that it has not been applied equally to all our customers affected by the changes to the price of a 6 month licence. To this extent I am prepared to uphold your complaint by determining that the 20% reduction in the 6 month licence fee referred to above, currently limited to owners of vessels not on BW navigations, should be extended to all our customers, wherever their boat is moored. This concession would also be applied retrospectively to the very significant number of our customers who have already accepted (and paid) the full amount for a 6 month licence based upon the original price decision. The consequence of this will, I know, present some challenges to our boat licensing department. Achieving a fair balance of licence fees across different groups of boaters – all of whom depend on the waterways being available when they want to use them, regardless of whether this is for just a few months, or year round – is not easy. The decision to increase the fee ratios for 3 and 6 month licences to their 2003 levels was made to reflect this general availability, and it is consistent with the practice of other navigation authorities. Nevertheless, I feel that the speed with which the adjustment was made was unreasonable. As a result of your complaint and a number of others on the same subject, my colleagues responsible for boat licensing are now giving further thought to a wider consultation with boating organisations to re-visit the relative charges for licences for different groups of boaters. This will either endorse the original decision to return the three and six month ratios to 2003 levels from 2012 or 2013 onwards, or it will result in a different pricing formula. If you would like to be kept informed about this work, please register for our monthly e- newsletter for boaters published at www.waterscape.com/boatersupdates. I hope this e mail sets out clearly how I have arrived at my conclusions, but if you are not satisfied then you are of course eligible to take your complaint further to the Waterways Ombudsman at any time within 6 months of the date of this letter. Details for the Waterway Ombudsman are Hilary Bainbridge The Waterways Ombudsman PO Box 35 York YO60 6WW Tel 01347 879075 E Mail enquiries@waterways-ombudsman.org Kind Regards, Richard Curtis Head of Property Development North |
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