The Reply

Sue received a reply from the National Trust. The bits in bold are what they said. and the bits not in bold, are my own thoughts and feelings on the matter. With such outrageous porkies being told, I'm not sure how the truth of the matter will ever be heard.
=============================================

Signs have been put up informing of mooring charges but they are frequently vandalised and removed.

there have been *one* set of signs, in 4 years. Therefore they have not been *frequently* vandalised or removed. They blew away in the wind, because they were laminated A4 sheets of paper, stapled to hastily knocked in poles. If there was an official sign, made of concrete and metal, it would not blow away.

unregistered and unscrupulous boat owners use this area for commuting into London and Maidenhead and have been long term residents with no payments to the National Trust

this is not true. unregistered boats are dealt with by the EA. unscrupulous liveaboard boaters would soon earn themselves a reputation with local boaters. word travels along the towpath very quickly.

boat rubbish is left on the riverbank which we have to collect

this is not true.

volunteers also engage with dog walkers and remove dog waste and general waste which is significant

i've walked my dog there more times than i can remember. i have never once been "engaged" by a volunteer. seen them picking up litter, or dog poo. people that use that path RESPECT their environment. i cannot recall seeing so much as even a discarded crisp packet dropped there.

Cockmarsh is a SSSI and is equal to Henley if not better as it is unspoilt Thames water meadow with a very unique pub.

What?!

All money collected from mooring fees will go to improving riverbank and footpath, we have absolutely no funding from any source for this area, we have just spent considerable amounts of money to make riverside footpath trees compliant.

compliant trees? what sort of bureaucratic gobbledigook is that? and how does that improve the moorings? looks nice from across the river, i presume. but compliant trees are bugger all use to boaters.

Locals are concerned about the amount of unregistered and illegal long term mooring

2nd time they mention this. as above. there is none.

party boats are frequent

party boats are too big to stop there.

rubbish left on river bank

2nd time they mention this. not true.
boaters dump their waste at cookham lock, in the large number of bins provided by EA.

The policy is free mooring for 1 day and night or 24 hours then a charge of £ 10.00 per day.

that is not what the signs are saying at the moment.
(see the post entitled 'New Signs').

=============================================


And they have completely ignored the fact that the volunteer told Sue, that the mooring fee was to "discourage" boats from stopping there. unlike Runnymede, where the volunteers are proud to point out that the mooring fees are *all* put back into improving the moorings.