150,000 per cent increase in ferry fees!
Discussion
The Telegraph said:[Source: The Telegraph]
Islanders in court after refusing to pay £5,000 ferry fee
The owners of 29 homes on a tiny Thames island are facing a £30,000 legal bill after refusing to accept a 150,000 per cent increase in their ferry fees.
John Bazalgette, the chairman of the board of Trowlock Island Limited, said that legal costs had spiralled after the Environment Agency took the islanders to court for not paying the ferry fee.
"We are furious," he said, adding that the inhabitants were mainly pensioners who had moved there when the properties were far cheaper.
The residents of Trowlock Island, in south-west London, own and operate the tiny chain ferry which is their only link to the mainland.
However, they have to pay a levy to the Environment Agency because the ferry rests on the riverbed when it is not in use.
Traditionally that fee was a nominal one guinea, shared between the islanders, which was decimalised to £3.77.
However, in 2002, the Environment Agency wrote to Trowlock Island Limited - effectively a resident's association which maintains the island - and said that the fee would increase to £5,000.
When the residents protested, the Environment Agency took them to court.
Yesterday in the High Court the judge suggested that the two parties "use common sense". He made no ruling on payment of costs.
The Environment Agency last night refused to comment, saying that "the parties are locked in settlement discussions".
It is thought that the increase is partly due to a Government decision to insist that the Environment Agency maximise its assets.
Mr Bazalgette said: "We will negotiate with them and see what happens."
Unbelievable!
No, sorry, let me change that to 'really quite believable'.
>> Edited by JonRB on Wednesday 25th January 10:08
As there is so few of them who cares? They can rant and rave as much as they want, but we know who will win dont we.
Off topic but still the EA:
There is an example of this sort of thing in Southwold (Suffolk) at the moment. A local farmer has had thousands of tons of hardcore placed at the bottom of the cliff next to his house as the local EA will not do anything and have been fighing him to stop. (with their new policy of calling it enviromental protection by letting the sea regain land or in otherwords do sod all)
Anyhow THEY have now recalcualted their boundry and said it now comes within their land and anything new they need to be notified.
Utter waste of space. Look at all the flooding in recent years...Someone is not doing their job.
www.waveney.gov.uk/press_releases/documents/pdf_docs/feb_04_eastern_bavents_update.pdf
>> Edited by scared but happy on Wednesday 25th January 10:17
Off topic but still the EA:
There is an example of this sort of thing in Southwold (Suffolk) at the moment. A local farmer has had thousands of tons of hardcore placed at the bottom of the cliff next to his house as the local EA will not do anything and have been fighing him to stop. (with their new policy of calling it enviromental protection by letting the sea regain land or in otherwords do sod all)
Anyhow THEY have now recalcualted their boundry and said it now comes within their land and anything new they need to be notified.
Utter waste of space. Look at all the flooding in recent years...Someone is not doing their job.
www.waveney.gov.uk/press_releases/documents/pdf_docs/feb_04_eastern_bavents_update.pdf
>> Edited by scared but happy on Wednesday 25th January 10:17
scared but happy said:That's not really the point though, is it? It is more down to this government grabbing what they can by every stealth tax possible and the 150,000% increase (which is quite an amusing headline figure really).
As there is so few of them who cares? They can rant and rave as much as they want, but we know who will win dont we.
mmm-five said:
I thought a guinea was 12 shillings and as a shilling was 12p that would be £1.44, plus another shilling at 12p = £1.56!
Once it was decimalised it should still be 13 shillings (now worth 5p each) - or 65p
>> Edited by mmm-five on Wednesday 25th January 10:40
As posted above, a Guinea was £1 1s. i.e. 21s = 21*5 new pence == £1.05
eccles said:
bazellgette (sp?) designed the tower bridge mechanism i think, he was definitely an engineer in the 1800's who did something really big in london, i assume this is one of his relatives
wasn't bazelgette the guy who did all the london sewers as well?
Yup!
>> Edited by Einion Yrth on Wednesday 25th January 11:22
There was a report on Watchdog recently about another island on the Thames where the only access was via a Bridge crossing Department of Enviromant land and again the rent has been increased dramatically.
Quite how one arrives at a market rent for these items is anyones guess, alough with the bridge case the real reason for the DoE getting excited would appear to be a wish for them to redevelop.
Quite how one arrives at a market rent for these items is anyones guess, alough with the bridge case the real reason for the DoE getting excited would appear to be a wish for them to redevelop.
mmm-five said:
I thought a guinea was 12 shillings and as a shilling was 12p that would be £1.44, plus another shilling at 12p = £1.56!
Once it was decimalised it should still be 13 shillings (now worth 5p each) - or 65p
>> Edited by mmm-five on Wednesday 25th January 10:40
No, a guinea was 21 shillings. A shilling (or 1/20th of a pound) became 5p. There were 12 OLD pence in a shilling.
Happy days!
chrisgr31 said:
There was a report on Watchdog recently about another island on the Thames where the only access was via a Bridge crossing Department of Enviromant land and again the rent has been increased dramatically.
Quite how one arrives at a market rent for these items is anyones guess, alough with the bridge case the real reason for the DoE getting excited would appear to be a wish for them to redevelop.
Yeah, I saw this. The Dept of the Environment said if they don't pay, they will be done for trespassing if they try to use the land. If asked whether the DofE would let emergency vehicles through, they said they would, just as long as they contacted the gate keeper first, and got him to unlock the gates....Very helpful.
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