Last week Jenny sponsored an event in Parliament for the National Bargee Traveller Association.

The National Bargee Travellers Association (NBTA) is a volunteer organisation that campaigns and provides advice for itinerant boat dwellers – “Bargee Travellers” – on Britain’s inland and coastal waterways. This includes anyone whose home is a boat and who does not have a permanent mooring for their boat with planning permission for residential use.

The right to use and live on a boat without a permanent mooring on the UK’s river, canal and coastal waterways derives from Section 17 of the British Waterways Act 1995; the Public Right of Navigation, and case law.

Itinerant boat dwellers on Canal & River Trust (CRT) waterways are entitled to spend 14 days moored in “any one place” and can stay longer if it is “reasonable in the circumstances”.

CRT is a charity created in 2012 as a Hybrid Body to replace the former British Waterways which was abolished using powers in the Public Bodies Act 2011. CRT manages most of the inland waterways of England and Wales. The transfer of the waterways to CRT removed any ministerial oversight or accountability. CRT has no effective regulator, making it unaccountable and this is reflected in its treatment of itinerant boat dwellers.

Read the whole briefing paper here