The boating body takes aim at e-Borders following a withering dismissal of drink boating proposals as "misguided"
The Royal Yachting Association has stepped up attacks in recent weeks against Government policy that will directly impact boating.
Following the recent launch of a consultation on which boats should be subject to future drink boating offences, the RYA went on the offensive, describing the Government’s proposals “misguided” and “badly drafted”.
Now the RYA has gone after e-Borders, saying today that it “does not support the UK Border Agency’s proposals to extend the application of the e-Borders programme to recreational boaters”.
This signals a new approach to e-Borders from the RYA, which had previously declined to come out completely against the scheme.
The boating body claims the only way e-Borders will work is if it does not:
– impose unfair or unreasonable restrictions on boater
– criminalise law-abiding citizens when they take action in the face of adverse conditions
– impact on the safety of navigation
Most importantly, the RYA claims that e-Borders must have the support of boaters to be effective, something the scheme might find elusive.
Gus Lewis, the RYA’s government and legal affairs advisor, said: “We need to stay engaged with the Agency in order to best serve our members and the recreational boating community as a whole. Without our engagement it may, through ignorance of the recreational boating sector implement a completely inappropriate scheme that could be disastrous for us all.”
