Licensing & Enforcement Report – for work carried out in July / Aug 2010
Milestones
Licence evasion reduced to 3% of enforceable boats
- targets per EO area have now been issued which will show how the
March 2011
Amber
national rate will be achieved. Indicative rate not yet reducing much..
Remove 100 non-compliant boats from our waterways
- 4 boats removed this month and it seems the average cost is working
March 2011
Amber
out higher than planned (approx £3.7K) therefore the budget may only
stretch to seizing 95 boats.
Management Reporting
Some small changes to the report this month:
Caseload - this group has been changed to expanded to give a better understanding of the workload of EO’s
and BC’s – rather than the whole enforcement patch.
Complaints – these have been changed to report just this financial year.
In July W&W carried out a 100% boat check following concerns about the March results. This showed an
increase evasion rate from 3.8% reported in March to 5.5% reported in July. The number of boats sighted
also increased. The overall indicative evasion rates has remained much the same since June report.
Increased ES and BSA monitoring has moved the majority of the enforcement ‘boxes’ to green which gives
confidence that the cases are being progressed.
Staffing
EO position at Glos filled internally (Lock Keeper), starts 11 Oct. Interview for EO postion London being
carried out 7/9.
Approved vacancies – EO Mids (Andy Hewitt), DC W&W (Carl Harris), 2 p/t DC London (currently Agency)
Bill Walker (DC – North) leaving end of Sept. 65 yr + contract not renewed and vacancy not approved.
Flex – 4 people kept allowance (2 W&W, 1 Mids, 1 SE). 2 in North still not accepted wording in contract
regarding ‘approx 4 weekends a year’. Stil ongoing.
1 member of staff challenging their PDR score at appeal.
2 DC’s in South given temporary extra duties for 12 month to assist with continuous cruisers issues in South.
Crisys lone working – 1 verbal warning issue for not using system. Confirmation email sent to all staff
regarding mandatory
1 BC’s going on long term sick (min 6 weeks up to 3 months) in mid October.
A number of customers in the North have been abusive to enf staff, including threats of violence to staff (esp
females) from one customer in the Liveaboard process – due in court Nov 11. Papers now served therefore
direct contact should be minimal.
A number issues regarding our processes and evasion monitoring were raised at the W&W team meeting.
This resulted in me attending a meeting to hear the different points of views and offered explanations. After
listening to the different points I still believe our processes are correct and this was re-emphasised at end of
the meeting.
1 EO involved in a drugs raid on at Common Moor, which in turn has helped us to progress a couple of
cases as ownership / liveaboard status was established.
System and Process changes
Further work carried out on the Mooring evasion process which looks likely to be able to progressed with
BC’s at their next meeting.
Process discussed and way forward reached for recording overstaying at new Isis lock landing. Looks likely
that Thames Valley police will assist in ticketing boats.
Changes to Continuous cruising process are being rolled out with cases being highlighted by reviewing a
number of months sightings. Based on these sightings those boats which have failed to move more than a
km are being identified and passed to the EO’s. The distance travel ed will expand as caseload allows. A
new ‘pre CC’ letter is being used in the first instance to advise owners there current cruising pattern does not
conform to the guidelines.
BLT Summary
- now appears a part of Trade / Estates report
Section 8 Update
7 boats seized in July, 4 boats seized in August – which gives a fin year to date total of 28 (35 in the
calendar year). So far 5 are planned for September, but a further 21 are waiting to be processed.
The sale of 7 boats have been finalised this month which wil help to return some funds into the ‘cost
recovery’ pot.
A problem occurred in July that a boat was ‘stolen’ after it had been seized. We found the boat a couple of
days later and ‘re-seized’ it. Unfortunately the boat had sustained damage and the outboard was missing
once we found the boat for the second time. Technically BW is responsible for this damage. This case was
well reported on various K&A websites and a 1st level complaint was received and responded to.
The seizure of 3 boats in August was carried out by 1 of 3 new contractors which have been found. Most
appear to be able to cover large areas and most circumstances.
Full backlog plan was drafted using defined timelines etc. However gave a reported time to seize of around
10 weeks and meant no boats would have been seized in Aug or Sept. PK now reviewing and revised
timeline due end of Oct with revised backlog schedule following.
Current average cost to seize a boat is running at £2,180 with a further £1,520 if it needs to be destroyed –
giving a total cost of £3,700 (which is approx £700 more per boat than planned). There is nearly £207K of
the original £300K budget remaining. 13 boats are awaiting destruction which will account for another £20K,
leaving approx £187K for future removals.
Using our records so far as a basis 39% of boats seized end up requiring to be destroyed therefore based on
this, the budget will cover a further 67 boats being seized (£146K) if we assumed 26 of these needed to be
destroyed (£41k).
We already have 21 boats pending removal which leaves 46 new cases before the end of March. The
average for the last 4 months has been 10 new cases a month which, if this rate continued would mean the
budget would only meet demand until the middle of January. This would give us a yearly total of boat
removal of 95 but this also requires nearly 10 boats a month being seized for the remaining 7 months of the
year.
Complaints
6 new complaints were received in July and a further 4 in August – again most of these are to do with
overstaying.
2 have gone to 2nd level. Mr Whitehead regarding licensing on a river whilst the boat is against his property,
Mr Widdicombe – disputing continuous cruiser / overstaying and personal vendetta by BW staff.
Other issues
Wakefield Waterfront – Enf team have now made contact / had meeting with Wharf owner and the subject of
trade plates has been raised. BCM also visited site to familiarise himself with site if removals are needed.
North Yks waterway has agreed to take back events in York from enforcement, such as Royal salute.
North patrol boat was in collision with boat and has caused £800 damage. PG investigating further. Ranger
– previous patrol boat which had been transferred to W Mids WW and had been put up for disposal has been
transferred back to our team and will head to cover River Weaver.
Issues with a boater near a BW site in the North – money has been received (and banked) for 6 month
licence. On receipt of insurance details he will be licensed but additional letter will be sent to outline
behaviours that must stop if the licence is to be renewed in the future.
First round of letters requesting validation of moorings have been sent out (L5 operators) – quite a poor
response so far and many email address details etc not valid.
Interaction between enforcement, boating support and BLT continues to be problematic. L O’N and PB
working closer together and have identified areas where the teams can help each other especially, especially
during this period of sickness being encountered by BLT staff. Further meeting scheduled for 16th
September
Denise Yelland
Sept 2010