The National Association of Boat Owners (NABO) has written to BW's Chairman,
Tony Hales, opposing BW's intention to offer up to three hundred directly managed
mooring vacancies to the highest bidder.
Council Member, Simon Robbins, who represents NABO on Moorings Matters, said:
"Council has unanimously resolved to pursue a complaint in public because
we feel private representations we have made over several months, and more recent
public representations, in both cases through the formal consultative structures,
have been ignored."
We requested an urgent discussion with the Director leading this project four weeks ago, when it became clear BW intended pressing ahead with a live auction trial in spite of advice to the contrary from customer representatives. BW have re-confirmed their intention to proceed with the first auctions very shortly, so we feel we must make our concerns public, not least to our members.
We do not believe it is appropriate that a scarce operational resource such
as long-term publicly owned moorings should be allocated to the highest bidder,
even on a 'trial basis', and certainly, not before full public consultation
has been undertaken. The auction approach implies a number of changes to several
existing national policies. We therefore believe BW's wish to allocate any moorings
by this method should be subject to full public consultation".
NABO Council has also resolved not to engage in any discussions about the implementation
of an auction process. Chairman, Stuart Sampson commented:
"We are considering a number of issues around the legality of this proposal,
in terms of consultation policy and are also concerned about sale of goods and
fair trading issues. It seems unclear what in detail boaters are going to be
bidding for. People who bid for moorings will also apparently be allowed to
fix their fees for three years and so potentially BW will have customers at
any given site paying different rates, on slightly different terms and conditions
to their neighbours, for an otherwise identical service.
If, in spite of our representations, the trial goes ahead, we urge
boaters to observe the "buyer beware" axiom and take professional advice before
parting with any money. NABO would welcome contact from anyone affected.".
03 May 2007
Since receipt of said letter, Tony Hales has referred it to BW Management who are considering it as an official Internal Complaint. Also the trial has been expanded to include sealed tendering and may last up to a year. BW intends to conduct staged consultations throughout the period. NABO will be vigilant and welcomes feedback from those affected.
1. The National Association of Boat Owners acts as a national consumer group
working on behalf boat owners on the inland waterways.
2. Section 4.2 of the British Waterways Framework Document, which sets out BW's
powers and aims, states:
4.2 So far as is practicable, British Waterways consults with waterway users,
user organisations and others affected by its activities on matters such as
standards, leisure, amenities and charges, in advance of decisions of significant
interest to them. Customers who consider themselves to have been unfairly treated
by British Waterways are entitled to invoke its three stage internal complaints
procedure and subsequent to this, where maladministration is alleged, have a
right of appeal to an independent Ombudsman, who is invited to serve by the
Secretary of State and appointed by British Waterways. British Waterways has
agreed to be bound by the Ombudsman's decisions on matters relating to maladministration.
Although the complaints procedure has been simplified and clarified and the
Ombudsman's remit expanded, since the Framework Document was adopted, the Ombudsman's
terms of reference do not (and probably should not) include powers to adjudicate
on the substance of BW policy decisions.
3. Representatives from NABO and other user groups expressed grave reservations
about the idea of auctioning vacancies to BW privately when it was brought up
in the Moorings Contracts Working Group a several months ago. The group is supposedly
a pre-consultation think-tank to help BW iron out the detail of policy proposals
before they are put forward for public consultation. We feel representations
we have made on this matter have been largely ignored. The decision not to undertake
public consultation also represents a serious departure from the pre-consultation
process that was supposedly underway.
4. Despite reps also repeating misgivings on record at the recent national user
group meeting, BW refused point blank to have any further discussions about
the matter, and confirmed their intention to press ahead.
5. Important details such as the terms of the mooring agreement to be offered
to bidders and the formal changes to national policy on pricing, national mooring
terms and conditions and waiting list policy, that are implicit to enable this
proposal to proceed and do not appear to have been adopted at this time.
6. On British Waterways' own figures they have a financial interest in approximately
65% of the moorings on their network and many users have concerns that BW are
in an un-regulated and monopolistic position in respect of the moorings market
and price setting. BW also has very strong influence over the availability and
supply of moorings.
7. On British Waterways own figures there is a national short fall in long term
moorings of the order of ten thousand berths, when compared with the number
of craft currently licenced by BW and the growth BW anticipate occurring in
the boating market over coming years. Overall BW currently licence approximately
25,000 powered craft of which approximately 2000 craft are already registered
as "continuous cruisers², who elect not to have a permanent home mooring.
8. BW has also announced its intention to evict customers on some long-term
linear moorings if they do not 'voluntarily' agree to relocate to "off-line"
moorings, usually in marinas. There has again been no public consultation on
the apparent adoption of this policy.