HAVE YOU VOTED for Stephen Peters?
(NABO and TBA candidate in the CRT election)
The deadline for casting your votes in the election for the Boaters’ Representatives to serve on the Canal & River Trust Council is 12 noon on Friday 9 March 2012. Have you remembered to vote?
There is still time to cast your votes via the designated website. Please urge everyone you know to vote.
Daunting?
The list of 33 candidates and their election statements may appear daunting to many boaters who do not know any of the named participants. That is no reason to ignore this historic opportunity to choose 4 people who will serve on the CRT Council and represent your interests and concerns.
Read through the election statements and see whose manifesto most closely matches your own thoughts on the future of pleasure boating on the inland waterways. The final decision is yours in this secret ballot but don’t discount candidates with long-term experience of waterways issues. It is unlikely that an independent candidate, who has not served on a national boating organisation, will have gained the necessary insight into the complex machinations of British Waterways – or have the broader view of how waterways politics work. Their personal interests may strike a chord with fellow boaters but may ignore the wider, national picture and regional differences on specific canals and rivers.
Experience
I have no illusions about the task ahead for your representatives on Council. It will be a miracle if the new CRT is markedly different from the existing BW in its dealings with boating customers. The same old problems and issues such as continuous cruising (or is it continuous mooring?), licence and mooring charges, BW’s imaginative interpretation of its own legislation, lack of adequate maintenance, poor customer relationships and lack of enforcement are likely to persist. These issues will take years to improve and CRT Council members will need to draw on their past experience and knowledge to effect the necessary improvements.
I believe my knowledge of the issues facing boat owners and my attention to fine detail and legal points makes me eminently suitable to represent the owners of ALL boats – be they narrow beam, broad beam, canal or river, day cruisers or floating homes.
A better deal for boaters
If I am elected to Council I will not shy away from holding the Trustees to account, raise issues and question the actions of CRT to give boaters a fairer and better deal so that we can all ENJOY our boating.
The results of the elections will be posted on the Waterscape website during the course of Monday 12 March 2012.
IF YOU VOTED FOR STEPHEN PETERS – THANK YOU