Don’t get me wrong,these are big factors, but there is something about making a conscious decision to live a life outside the norm that fosters a sense of community, with the ups, downs, internal divisions and mutual belonging that all communities experience. Uxbridge and Cowley have been the home of an informal waterways community for many years now. It has never been an organised group, as far as I know, until fairly recently, when local boater Louise Yeoman sprung into action in the face of a threat upon her home from the Canal and Rivers Trust (CRT).
Harnessing the power of the internet, Louise created a Facebook group for local boaters, organised meetings with CRT and has been tireless in ensuring that all those who live upon the canal in Uxbridge and Cowley (and trust me, there are quite a lot of us) are up to date with information about legislation, consultations and all manner of words ending in “tion”.
First, some brief boating facts, for the uninitiated:
The waterways of Britain used to be run by government-owned British Waterways, but in 2012 changed to a “charitable trust”, the Canal and River Trust.
All canal boaters must pay an annual licence fee, which is on average £700 per year.
If they then choose to moor their boat on a permanent mooring (ie. they get to stay in one place! Hooray!) then they have to pay the associated costs, which vary greatly depending on the type of mooring (ie. whether it has access to water, electricity and so on).
If they don’t want to have a permanent mooring, they are classed as Continuous Cruisers, and are required to move every 14 days. Currently, they do not have to pay any additional fees.
Recently, the CRT have been cracking down on those who they class as (get ready for this mouthful) “Non-Compliant Continuous Cruisers”, who are essentially boaters who don’t move as much as the CRT would like. The problem stems from some very vague wording in the legislation, which simply says that continuous cruisers must move to a new “place” every fortnight. Hmm.
In our local community, boaters such as Louise have found themselves on the receiving end of a letter which implies that if they don’t immediately move their boat to a suitable distance, they will find themselves homeless.
And like communities throughout history, we have banded together in the face of a threat. We’ve organised, discussed, written letters and blogs and Freedom of Information requests. People live on the water for a whole host of reasons. We are a melting pot of people from all kinds of backgrounds and all walks of life, from single mothers to businessmen, to musicians and students, to army veterans and peace protesters. Still, we share this one thread, this line of murky water that traces the backbone of Uxbridge, and this is why boating is so much more than just chemical toilets and diesel generators.
Don’t worry, next week I’ll be back to discussing how I once got attacked by a swan.
The Cowley and Uxbridge boating community facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/519323511420831
