With the option to change boater legislation on the table for CRT, we need to get more MP allies to help stop any law change. We have put together an easy-to-use online form for you to write to an MP and to collect information on what MPs have said about boaters to help us direct […]
Author: Marcus Trower
Selling us up the Swanee
While CRT complains about the reduction in government funding and uses it as an excuse to increase our licence fees, we must remind ourselves that the reason given by the Tory government for the creation of CRT was so that the waterways could eventually be self-sustaining and not need any government funding. Putting aside the fact […]
Licence Review Survey Results: What the Data Really Shows
In June 2025 CRT’s Licence Review Commission published the results of their ‘engagement survey of Canal and River Trust waterway users’, carried out between March and April of this year by independent consultants Campbell Tickell. The survey – which many respondents have reported as being ill-conceived and biased – has nevertheless returned results that will […]
Boaters’ Big Bash! 14th June 2025
Boaters’ Big Bash! Our community is under a flurry of attacks, from the chargeable moorings; charging boaters without a home mooring differently from boaters with moorings for the same licence; to CRT’s plans to try to change the law that protects us. More than ever, our community needs to come together to show a united […]
NBTA looking to hire new national organiser!
We’re hiring a National Organiser Our community is facing urgent threats. The imposition of chargeable moorings, a discriminatory surcharge on boats without home moorings, and now a ostensibly independent review commissioned and funded by CRT, which is looking to preempt legislative changes to the licensing framework for itinerant boaters, the very legislation which safeguards our […]
The Campaign for the Energy Grant
In the winter, the cost of living on a boat increases massively for many of us, with paying for coal, gas, or diesel to heat our homes. Some of us may forage for free wood to burn. However, this option is now threatened when moored within ‘clean air zones’ due to bans on burning foraged […]
An opinion piece about the licence strike
Here is an opinion of a boater about a licence strike not a NBTA statement: Opinion: Why I will be licence striking as part of a coordinated boater mass action My boat is my home. Over a five year period CRT want to raise my licence by around £600. That’s an additional half on top of the fee I already pay. I want […]
Surcharge, real financial cost in 5 years?
With some confusion and a seeming lack of wide alarm at a 5% rising to 25% surcharge on boats without home moorings, CRT’s ‘glide path’, which introduces incremental and differential licence fee pricing between now and 2028, could well be intentionally deceptive.
CRT allows sewage to leak into canal
“The stench was so bad I threw up” said a boater as sewage blanketed the tourist spot Little Venice on the Regents Canal for nine days and counting, following inaction from the charity Canal & River Trust (CRT). Negligence from the UK’s main canal charity has allowed untreated sewage to seep over towpaths and into […]
NBTA to run Volunteer Caseworker training course in October
The National Bargee Travellers Association (NBTA) will be holding an online training course for Volunteer Caseworkers to join our dedicated team. There are three sessions within the training course. They will be held online on 20th and 27th October and 3rd November 2024 from 3pm to 6pm. NBTA Caseworkers help boaters to deal with enforcement […]