Another crackdown on Thames moorings

[Tim Lewis]

This time Abingdon:

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/15250389.Stricter_rules_agreed_to_tackle_boaters_who_hang_around_on_river/

Tim

 

[Chewbacka]

1 hour ago, Tim Lewis said:

This time Abingdon:

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/15250389.Stricter_rules_agreed_to_tackle_boaters_who_hang_around_on_river/

Tim

 

From reading the above it seems some of the long stay boats have been upsetting the locals, and as councils are becoming sensitive to locals complaints them I think we can expect a lot more of this.  Also as it costs money to enforce, I can see councils where they are allowed to start charging for visitor moorings to both fund the management of the moorings and possibly to make a bit of money as well.   It is a bit ironic that the people moving onto boats to save money are indirectly pushing up the costs of boating for everybody............

[mrsmelly]

2 minutes ago, Chewbacka said:

.   It is a bit ironic that the people moving onto boats to save money are indirectly pushing up the costs of boating for everybody............

I have of course said this a thousand times IT IS NOT cheaper to live on a boat IT COSTS MORE. Living on a boat costs more than living in a house assuming ownership of the said house or boat. I owned my last house and council tax was my overhead about a grand a yearplus gas/electric rtc I own this boat and ownership is a grand a year licence plus shed loads more for moorings and everything else including gas/electric etc. It is only  cheaper  to live on a boat if you try to buck the system.

[Martin Megson]

Seems a sensible reaction to what is probably a minority of boaters causing a nuisance.  3 days is a reasonable time to visit Abingdon. 

 

[Robbo]

28 minutes ago, Chewbacka said:

From reading the above it seems some of the long stay boats have been upsetting the locals, and as councils are becoming sensitive to locals complaints them I think we can expect a lot more of this.  Also as it costs money to enforce, I can see councils where they are allowed to start charging for visitor moorings to both fund the management of the moorings and possibly to make a bit of money as well.   It is a bit ironic that the people moving onto boats to save money are indirectly pushing up the costs of boating for everybody............

Also if you paying a mortgage on said property, long term you are financially in as well.  It maybe cheaper to get a boat but long term you are financially a lot worse off.

[Jambo]

34 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

...assuming ownership of the said house or boat....

I would say that for many young people that assumption is immaterial as they can't afford to own a flat, let alone a house, and renting is sucking up an increasingly large chunk of their (reducing) income. But they might have enough squirrelled away to be able to afford to buy a boat. You can pick up a basic narrowboat for the equivalent of about 1 to 2 year's rent in London. Given the choice between throwing yet more money away to some BtL landlord for the foreseeable future and having a boat to call your own, it's understandable why things have got quite busy down here.

[mrsmelly]

1 minute ago, Jambo said:

I would say that for many young people that assumption is immaterial as they can't afford to own a flat, let alone a house, and renting is sucking up an increasingly large chunk of their (reducing) income. But they might have enough squirrelled away to be able to afford to buy a boat. You can pick up a basic narrowboat for the equivalent of about 1 to 2 year's rent in London. Given the choice between throwing yet more money away to some BtL landlord for the foreseeable future and having a boat to call your own, it's understandable why things have got quite busy down here.

Completely agree. In the last two years two budget end boats have been bought from here and ended up in London as homes for precisely that reason. For people like me though it has never been a cheaper just a better option than house dwelling. What I cannot understand though on meeting these two couple who bought the two boats is why oh why London?

None of the four people involved had well paid jobs, they had jobs they could hold down anywhere so could have taken their boat to much nicer places than London and lived aboard with less hassle and had more disposable income.

[matty40s]

It's not just budget end boats.

Brand new widebeams are being dropped in the GU and taken down there on a monthly basis.

Professionals are buying high end 2nd hand boats to use as midweek flats rather than commute daily.

Parents are buying boats for their kids to live on down there, students and young professionals etc. I know one family who have bought 2 sons and a daughter a narrowboat each as they have reached university age.

[chubby]

2 hours ago, mrsmelly said:

Completely agree. In the last two years two budget end boats have been bought from here and ended up in London as homes for precisely that reason. For people like me though it has never been a cheaper just a better option than house dwelling. What I cannot understand though on meeting these two couple who bought the two boats is why oh why London?

None of the four people involved had well paid jobs, they had jobs they could hold down anywhere so could have taken their boat to much nicer places than London and lived aboard with less hassle and had more disposable income.

Though i agree with some of this mentality i cannot agree entirely . London is many things to many people - different things to different people . Many will have something of a love / hate relationship with it . I certainly do . 

But . The truth as i see it is that London is a place where if u want to succeed within certain professions then you will have little choice to move there - maybe long term , maybe not . Professions such as TV , media , law , politics & journalism , tourism & many many more will often require a stint in London . I used to be a chef - if you want to learn to be a good one then you go to London and maybe elsewhere after . 

Many folk will have to accept  , & do accept the struggle financially if they want to further thier careers and Londons always been excessively expensive but nowadays its beyond belief . I expect this is why so many tolerate the difficulties . 

Having said all that , i do often wonder just how many who struggle thru in London could get on better elsewhere . I expect there are a great number of folk who could be better off outside the capital as they have jobs & skills that are transferable . I think inertia is one reason . People get settled , have habits etc - stuck in a rut is how i would describe it . Sometimes it takes effort to make a clean break and some folk aren t up for it . So though there are many who live in London for reasons of career , social life , culture , etc there must be many who never leave when they really could do so . 

Though i understand lots of people dont like the place for very genuine reasons , lots of others do like it for equally genuine reasons . 

Me - i love it here , even with all its difficulties . Thats why i stay . But when i stop loving it i will go like a shot because if i dont need or want to be here then why tolerate its downsides . 

I find its a place that gets under your skin .... but then most of the worlds great cities do don t they ? For me they do anyway ....

cheers

 

Edited April 27, 2017 by chubby

[dor]

Quote

But . The truth as i see it is that London is a place where if u want to succeed within certain professions then you will have little choice to move there - maybe long term , maybe not . Professions such as TV , media , law , politics & journalism , tourism & many many more will often require a stint in London . I used to be a chef - if you want to learn to be a good one then you go to London and maybe elsewhere after . 

Really?

Have you never heard of Manchester. Or Edinburgh/Glasgow?  Or even, heaven forbid, Birmingham?

Not to mention any number of towns in the Midlands, North, Wales or Scotland where there seem to be plenty of people in the professions you mention doing very nicely thank you.  These successful people buy their boats for fun, not as a cheap (??) place to live.   And they certainly wouldn't touch the 30+ year old boats on the point of sinking for £30K which people who see a boat as a cheap way to live in London do.

[mark99]

https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/mar/05/data-store-pharmaceuticals-industry

 

Add that to the wealth map and see why people don't like little cities you can walk across in an hour.  lol. 

 

London is an awesome place. If you don't like it that's fine, bugger off.

Edited April 27, 2017 by mark99

[chubby]

13 hours ago, dor said:

Really?

Have you never heard of Manchester. Or Edinburgh/Glasgow?  Or even, heaven forbid, Birmingham?

Not to mention any number of towns in the Midlands, North, Wales or Scotland where there seem to be plenty of people in the professions you mention doing very nicely thank you.  These successful people buy their boats for fun, not as a cheap (??) place to live.   And they certainly wouldn't touch the 30+ year old boats on the point of sinking for £30K which people who see a boat as a cheap way to live in London do.

Good grief 

An over reaction i suggest . You would appear " offended " by my comments i posted above . Perhaps you ought to re read them with a bit more attention . I do not state that one cannot be successful anywhere except London , though you choose to interpret my comments that way . 

So , i ll repeat my opinion . Whether one likes the idea or not i would suggest that there are countless professions where London is the best place in which to base ones self , permanently or temporarily , in order to build thier chosen career . It is my OPINION . It appears that many others agree judging by the capital citys population .  This is not to say that one cannot " achieve " elsewhere , i simply state that perhaps London offers more opportunity to do so . That is all . 

Im not a " geezer " - i dont spend my weekends doin the lambeth walk or listening to Chas & Dave . I live in London cos i like it , when i stop liking it i ll leave . 

Theres really no need to be offended . Im not attempting to bolster the North / South divide - im just commenting as to why i think so many folk move here , stay here and often struggle here . I think its admirable that people to come to London to chase thier career ambitions despite the difficulties of getting by . You may have a dfferent outlook on life , a different definition of success - i dunno ? 

As for the second part of your response . I would consider your opinion to be complete snobbery . You appear to be suggesting that a narrowboat should be an expensive toy to be used for playtimes . Well done you . Maybe you " got on " . Maybe you did well for yourself . Maybe you aren t a member of " generation rent " who look to the future and see years and years of paying out to allow a landlord to become wealthier and wealthier or having to spend years saving and saving just to get mortgage deposits together . Not everyone has " the bank of mum and dad " to fall back on & not everyone wants to borrow from thier parents even if they can . So there are people struggling to get by . Not all of them need to be in London - i said as much before did i not .? Some folk do need to be in London and some will use boats as a home . So what ? There will always be pisstakers and they should dealt with . Your comments seem to tar everyone with the same brush .

Anyway , its a nice sunny day and im off to work in London . Another day , another dollar and in time another rung up the career ladder . Seeing as its nice why not piss off out playing in your expensive toy boat and maybe have a ponder on your snobbery and reconsider if its justified

cheers

[dmr]

I don't really like London and would hate to live there, but do enjoy spending a day or two there once in a while

My kids live in Bristol which also suffers from high house prices and they are struggling to buy one, if they moved North they could get a small mansion, but I fully understand why they live in Bristol. I love visiting Bristol and so its not too difficult to appreciate why other people choose to live in London. Too many people on this forum have forgotten what its like to be young!

................Dave

[mrsmelly]

33 minutes ago, dmr said:

I don't really like London and would hate to live there, but do enjoy spending a day or two there once in a while

My kids live in Bristol which also suffers from high house prices and they are struggling to buy one, if they moved North they could get a small mansion, but I fully understand why they live in Bristol. I love visiting Bristol and so its not too difficult to appreciate why other people choose to live in London. Too many people on this forum have forgotten what its like to be young!

................Dave

Funny world innit? I detest London and will never go again other than to pass as quickly thro it as possible on mi boat en route to somewhere else. I too have a child that lives in Bristol ( Hanham )  she used to live in London but moved to Bristol to buy a house years ago, best move she ever made. I am however still young 

Edited April 28, 2017 by mrsmelly

[dmr]

56 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

Funny world innit? I detest London and will never go again other than to pass as quickly thro it as possible on mi boat en route to somewhere else. I too have a child that lives in Bristol ( Hanham )  she used to live in London but moved to Bristol to buy a house years ago, best move she ever made. I am however still young 

I find London unfriendly but Bristol is the opposite, its hard to go out without getting into conversation with the locals. Once a year the children and friends meet us in Bath and we all take the boat down to Bristol. On a sunny day the Bristol Avon is a spectacularly pretty and interesting River. Bristol is expensive, mooring is over £30 per night for us so after paying that much to moor we have to make the most of it by eating out and drinking out every night.

We were very naughty on the way down as we had lunch on the boat whilst in Hanham lock. Very few boats use the river but just as we finished a trip boat arrived, luckily the music was so loud that we heard him approaching about ten minutes before he arrived.

...............Dave

[mrsmelly]

1 minute ago, dmr said:

I find London unfriendly but Bristol is the opposite, its hard to go out without getting into conversation with the locals. Once a year the children and friends meet us in Bath and we all take the boat down to Bristol. On a sunny day the Bristol Avon is a spectacularly pretty and interesting River. Bristol is expensive, mooring is over £30 per night for us so after paying that much to moor we have to make the most of it by eating out and drinking out every night.

We were very naughty on the way down as we had lunch on the boat whilst in Hanham lock. Very few boats use the river but just as we finished a trip boat arrived, luckily the music was so loud that we heard him approaching about ten minutes before he arrived.

...............Dave

" we have to make the most of it by eating out and drinking out every night " any old excuse 

[FadeToScarlet]

16 hours ago, dor said:

Not to mention any number of towns in the Midlands, North, Wales or Scotland where there seem to be plenty of people in the professions you mention doing very nicely thank you

Ask them where they trained, and started their careers.