£2350 for EA pageant hats

it seems the 4 vessels from the EA thames region which took part in the jubilee pageant, had an expensive day:

£6000 for accomodation
£2350 for new caps
£500 for food
factor in the cost of preparation, fuel for the four vessels, and salaries for the senior EA personnel, and you aint gonna get much change out of £20k

I hope her majesty appreciated the expenditure, 'cause I'm sure there are a few license payers who think their money could be better spent elsewhere

amushroom said:

it seems the 4 vessels from the EA thames region which took part in the jubilee pageant, had an expensive day:

£6000 for accomodation
£2350 for new caps
£500 for food
factor in the cost of preparation, fuel for the four vessels, and salaries for the senior EA personnel, and you aint gonna get much change out of £20k

I hope her majesty appreciated the expenditure, 'cause I'm sure there are a few license payers who think their money could be better spent elsewhere

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Don't you think that as a form of advertising , and to get that much exposure , it was quite cheap?

Just out of interest where did you get your figures from ?

---------- Post added at 07:06 ---------- Previous post was at 07:02 ----------

Obviously I'm playing Devil's advocat

advertising, if it was the case, they advertised the fact that when one of 'em broke down, none of the new cap wearers knew what a spanner looked like
it a simple case of gotta be seen, everyone else is, and I wanna be on the next gong list

regarding the info, I started a club over 2 years ago that had more than 1200 members, despite my current non involvement I am still in communication with a large number of them, they include residents in scotland and as far south as devon

hope that answers your question fella

amushroom said:

advertising, if it was the case, they advertised the fact that when one of 'em broke down, none of the new cap wearers knew what a spanner looked like
it a simple case of gotta be seen, everyone else is, and I wanna be on the next gong list

regarding the info, I started a club over 2 years ago that had more than 1200 members, despite my current non involvement I am still in communication with a large number of them, they include residents in scotland and as far south as devon

hope that answers your question fella

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It does thanks , but in terms of advertising , 20K is peanuts, why they need to advertise is another matter entirely.

The reason I asked about the source of the info , wasn't to question your truthfulness - i hope you didnt think that , but unless you make an FOI request its difficult to find out how the EA spend their money.

They do publish their end of year summary and I seem to remember they spend a phenomenal amount on marketing , more than the pay your license or else adverts , mostly on sky channels , would seem to warrant.

I got the train from Weybridge with my niece, her husband, a 4 year old and the 1 year old twins in a double buggy. Got to the London Eye and didn't see a thing. The crowd were 50 deep along the river. Watched a screen obscured by trees and got cold and wet. Had a 1 hour walk back to the station because of the crowds, more cold and wet and was so crammed on the train home, I could have fainted. The four year old found a new way to attract attention; bash anyone within 4 yards over the head with her flag and if that did not work; poke them in the eye however, with a bit of training she did target a few illegal immigrants/terrorist suspects. But she is lovely and laughed all day and never complained once.

HOWEVER, I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT.

Why, because I am British and when we all waved our flags and cheered, thousands and thousands of us in the wet and cold; I realized that my country means a lot and only the Queen can bring that out in us. She was superb throughout. Some things are priceless and the politics, the cost and all the logic in the world cant out do that. Sometimes you just have to let your heart and spirit rule, not your head.
My only annoyance was watching the so called comedians poking fun and talking about the Queen and her family as if they were not there at the concert the next day. Now in my book that's just rude and not very funny.

sweet fella, I welcome the opportunity to explain myself

FOI requests, more than 100,000 signatories to a petition, etc etc, just sudocream that dont stop the infection

the EA are top of the table when it comes to wasting money, whether that be advertising or the many other aspects of their business
in order to understand the depths of ridiculousness that occur, you gotta talk to the indians on the ground, I call 'em indians because the contractors are only missing their horses
here's a couple of examples from memory
lock gates removed from oxfordshire, floated downstream to a fully equiped yard at sunbury, then put on a lorry and taken to an open field in oxfordshire for repair, explanation, sunbury yard had to look non busy due to development proposals
or mooring in front of lock, constructed, then taken down and moved 5 yds because it interfered with vessels accessing the lock
or lock gates supplied and installed by a contractor, taken out shortly after installation by the indians, because they weren't working properly, they were found to be shorter in length than the spec, and had insufficient filling, again contrary to the spec

markg said:

Why, because I am British and when we all waved our flags and cheered, thousands and thousands of us in the wet and cold; I realized that my country means a lot and only the Queen can bring that out in us. She was superb throughout. Some things are priceless and the politics, the cost and all the logic in the world cant out do that. Sometimes you just have to let your heart and spirit rule, not your head.
My only annoyance was watching the so called comedians poking fun and talking about the Queen and her family as if they were not there at the concert the next day. Now in my book that's just rude and not very funny.

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markg said:

Why, because I am British and when we all waved our flags and cheered, thousands and thousands of us in the wet and cold; I realized that my country means a lot and only the Queen can bring that out in us. She was superb throughout. Some things are priceless and the politics, the cost and all the logic in the world cant out do that. Sometimes you just have to let your heart and spirit rule, not your head.

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Some folk don't realize that if we did not have a royal family we would not have the rich cultural and historical heritage that make this county of ours great and most importantly we would not have no tourism industry to speak of!

---------- Post added at 07:37 ---------- Previous post was at 07:34 ----------

amushroom said:

sweet fella, I welcome the opportunity to explain myself

FOI requests, more than 100,000 signatories to a petition, etc etc, just sudocream that dont stop the infection

the EA are top of the table when it comes to wasting money, whether that be advertising or the many other aspects of their business
in order to understand the depths of ridiculousness that occur, you gotta talk to the indians on the ground, I call 'em indians because the contractors are only missing their horses
here's a couple of examples from memory
lock gates removed from oxfordshire, floated downstream to a fully equiped yard at sunbury, then put on a lorry and taken to an open field in oxfordshire for repair, explanation, sunbury yard had to look non busy due to development proposals
or mooring in front of lock, constructed, then taken down and moved 5 yds because it interfered with vessels accessing the lock
or lock gates supplied and installed by a contractor, taken out shortly after installation by the indians, because they weren't working properly, they were found to be shorter in length than the spec, and had insufficient filling, again contrary to the spec

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It might be just me but I did not get any of that!

Foi requests universally used by suppliers to see if there are any selling oppurtunities , I have completed about twenty over the last twekve months not one from a citizen.

Finding out how the EA soend their money is worthwhile , computer modelling at Abingdon springs to mind, having a say in it is a totally different matter.

amushroom said:

'cause I'm sure there are a few license payers who think their money could be better spent elsewhere

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Moderator Hat: Off, ie personal comment

I certainly don't Hucklebery; in fact I was very happy to see the EA vessels participating in Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee - in fact if you look at this with an unbiased eye; for a pagent on the River THAMES was any other organisation better suited for the ocassion?

I'm sorry but I don't find your thread very helpful in conjoining those interested party's on the topic of the River.

Moderator Hat: back on

I hope they used electric motors on their boat, well got to think of Pollution and the Environment

Now i'm just being troublesome

I haven't bought a Rod License for 2 seasons now, so i guess i really don't get to have a say, oh, yes, i haven't been fishing either, well, i didn't want anyone thinking i was a poacher or worse.

Some folk don't realize that if we did not have a royal family we would not have the rich cultural and historical heritage that make this county of ours great and most importantly we would not have no tourism industry to speak of

Quite Mark, and it unifies us in a way the politicians etc will never be able to do.
The saying , knowing the cost of everything but the value of nothing comes to mind as well.
I know this is more of a dig at the EA from the original poster but, I believe he did mention taxpayers money.

chaps, you read, but you dont see
not once did I suggest they shouldn't be there, I questioned the cost of being there
when the EA cant afford to have tap water tested at locks, meaning their customers are denied drinking water, how can they afford new caps for a pageant
perhaps under the FOI someone might wanna ask how many times has an electrical contractor driven from the south coast to change a light bulb, sorry they're called lamps, at an EA lock, and the cost
or perhaps the best from last and this year, EA volunteers, training debacles and damage to lock machinery, uniform and health and safety problems, etc etc
with a cost running into hundreds of thousands of pounds, you gotta wonder whether like hydropower, the EA are just ticking boxes

markg said:

Some folk don't realize that if we did not have a royal family we would not have the rich cultural and historical heritage that make this county of ours great and most importantly we would not have no tourism industry to speak of

Quite Mark, and it unifies us in a way the politicians etc will never be able to do.
The saying , knowing the cost of everything but the value of nothing comes to mind as well.
I know this is more of a dig at the EA from the original poster but, I believe he did mention taxpayers money.

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Good job Henry viii is not till on the thrown! If he read some of the stuff I put on here, I would be probably be in the tower awaiting the block

£2350 for hats (and the rest) The last meeting I attended at the EA's Newcastle office (ATr NE Forum) we had to buy our own milk to have a drink of tea/coffee. Some people attending having to travel over 60 miles and most going there straight after a full days work, not to mention the fuel costs. The only EA person attending (to lock up the building) was Kev Summerson, head of enforcement NE, as apparently, EA staff are not allowed to work out of hours on H&S grounds (in the West end of Newcastle that's probably understandable )

As for publicity, I doubt that more than 1 in 1000 even know/knew about the EA's fisheries functions, before and after last week's river pageant.

No doubt all of the EA's RFERAC Chairs were there for the freebies, and putting in a big fat expense's claim - for the whole weekend When they actually fulfilled their purpose some even claimed for overnight stays (these were REGIONAL meetings) Many a time Ive done meetings in Birmingham/Midlands/Hereford in the same day driving from the NE.
At least John W (BAA) used to put on a real cold lunch - with big pork pies not puff pastry things filled with god knows what paste

nice one john, lets hope the extremes of h&s are eventually kicked into touch, otherwise the license checkers are only going to work 9 till 5

are people aware of the increase in warranted EA operatives, I believe that employees such as boatman and engineering staff are being shuffled sideways