Paul said: > Can I suggest one simple reason why BW have not started charging by > area. It costs more to administer and the implementation charges would > be very high. Each new application would have to be checked to ensure > the applicant had done the sums correctly otherwise the boat would be > paying the wrong fee for the rest of its life. Enforcement officers > instead of being able to check the correct fee had been paid by simply > running a measure along the bank would have to climb on the boat to > check the beam. That brings in all sorts of H&S issues.
While you have a point, may I point out that one in fourteen boats currently on BW's system is unlicensed and so perhaps it would be better to get 'some' licence fee from 'all' rather than worrying about whether the calculations for each individual boat were correct to the second decimal place. Then, later on maybe, all boats could be double-checked for dimensions when we have achieved the nirvana of complete licence compliance ;-)) > One final thought instead of charging by area how about length and draft > then you only need a gauging stick and deeper boats that need the cut to > be dredged deeper pay more and it should appeal to the traditionalists. It's a thought but surely, by this method, you would penalise older deep-draughted (and long) historic working craft and these are the very boats that we should be struggling to keep on the system for heritage reasons? Roger
