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SALLY ASH, British Waterways' Head of Mooring Development, and prime instigator of the plan to auction off vacant moorings to the highest bidder, would have us believe that this is in the interests of boaters—but the boaters themselves have shown otherwise.

Our poll, accurately reflecting the wishes of boaters, resulted in a clear message that they do not agree with the auctioning of vacant moorings, with a staggering 92% of the 7,035 votes cast being against the proposal.

The results were 6,465 votes against auctioning moorings and 570 for.

The votes cast were nowhere near the number recorded in the previous polls relating to Robin Evans' management and customer satisfaction, but in view of its limited interest can be argued as more damming.

This is by no means Sally Ash's only suspect undertaking, where the boater has been on the receiving end of bad practice. Here is a list of the more recent endeavours she was involved with:

Trial Moorings Code

1. The ‘Trial Moorings Code’—this was a great one for British Waterways’ Head of Boating Development. It was proposed that folk had to move ‘ten lock miles’ every two weeks, complete a log book of their movements and find a British Waterways’ bank side employee to endorse the log book. It caused a lot of upset amongst genuine boaters who could see it was completely unenforceable and ill thought through. As for finding a British Waterways’ employee when one was needed!

Strangely the documents have now disappeared from British Waterways’ web site...

Reduction of one in 10

2. The reduction of one online mooring in every 10 within 30 miles of any new marina being built.

When Pillings marina came on line in 2006 it was time for ‘the plan’ to be put into action. Not by Sally, she instead passed the reduction criteria out to British Waterways’ employees in the East Midlands to try and enforce.

Sally Ash, British Waterways' Head of Mooring Development, has been with British Waterways for over 25 years.

Incomplete criteria for fairly reducing any online moorings meant that local boaters were up in arms about it. And so were Sally’s suffering colleagues too. The numerous complaints were eventually upheld, but not before affected boaters had experienced many sleepless nights.

The policy was meant to be a peace offering to British Marine Federation after the ‘fair trade’ argument of 2005. Will it be resurrected? Well, if it isn’t, it’s likely to bring British Waterways into disrepute with the British Marine Federation again.

Shared ownership licence

3. Shared ownership licensing debacle—begun in 2004 and still ongoing today. Two ombudsman cases, two consultations and it is still not sorted out properly. Shared boat owners estimate that British Waterways’ would have received an extra £150,000 each year if it had come to pass, but it didn’t. The cost of this is not divulged.

Online licence check

4. Online licence checker—2008. Does it work? It is seen to be purely a gimmick—why not something useful like actively tackling licence evasion rather than pushing the means of checking onto those who just want the scroungers to be brought to book. Divide and rule on the waterways!

Biodegradable soap

5. 'Grey water' to be included in boat licence terms and conditions—2008. She was told it wasn’t necessary by her environmental colleagues, yet still went ahead and inserted it in the licence conditions. After the disclosure in narrowboatworld she then blamed the British Waterways web master of all people for publishing it, though she actually wrote it! She backed down with the excuse that it should have been 'phosphate free' not 'biodegradable'.

Licensing proposals

6. This week was the condemnation by the Inland Waterways Association of her licensing proposals, another can of worms to be sorted out.