DBA - The Barge Association

We promote DBA – The Barge Association as the primary representative body for our class of boat.
We refer to ourselves and trade as The DBA and/or DBA - The Barge Association (AGM 2000).
We will seek to participate in forums, user groups, etc. to promote our views and protect the interests of our members.
We will seek discounts from suppliers of barge orientated products and services for our members.
We invite members of RBOA and NABO to join the DBA bottled gas scheme;
We will send regular press releases to relevant publications, organisations and waterway authorities;
We will request that any member, who has a marine orientated business, to display our publicity material (fliers, etc.), particularly at boat shows.

We will support and promote the retention of inland navigations and the maintenance of such navigations to standards which will allow their ready use by barges. Within this remit comes dredging to original profiles (at the very least, and with reference to the dimensions of adjacent locks), sustaining of water levels, removal of obstructions (sunken vessels, rubbish, overhanging trees, etc.), repairs (lock gates, bridges, breaches, etc.) and signposting.
We will continually stress to all navigation authorities the necessity to publish (notice boards, website, etc.) all stoppages, as well in advance as possible.
We will support and promote the restoration of navigations which have become unusable and the creation of new barge navigations.
We support any groups which promulgate restoration or expansion of waterways, irrespective of whether they are narrow beam or wide beam.
We support all improvements to waterway facilities, in particular for boats 'on the move' but not to the exclusion of permanent and residential moorings.
We seek to be consulted and look at, on a case-by-case basis, all waterside developments and raise objections if it is felt that the development is detrimental to the waterway and/or our members.

We support engine exhaust emission levels for new craft but that the legislation is not retrospective and does not apply to 'heritage' vessels.
We oppose 24m as being a cut-off point regarding licences and skippers qualifications for pleasure craft.
We will promote the use of navigation charges for barges which reflect a fair division of waterway costs, but we will oppose the application of charges based on the size of craft where size is not a significant element of costs.
We support a Europe wide system of boat registration.
We oppose, in principle, any new regulations for barges to be made retrospective.
We support all and any Rights of Navigation.
We believe that all boats should be appropriately insured.
We promote as much freedom of access to information from regulatory authorities to our members as is possible.
We support the organisational revision of the Boat Safety Scheme but regret that the Standards are still in an unsatisfactory state.
We support the creation of a single navigation authority to manage the publicly-owned navigations. Until this is achieved, we support a reciprocal licensing agreement between EA and BW or an all-round license.
We support Heritage status for members’ barges where applicable.
We take note of and inform our members of any local authority anomalies (bye-laws) if we believe that they impinge on our members’ interests.

We oppose any increase in taxation on fuels.
We oppose the imposition of unreasonable or excessive costs or requirements on the operators or owners of barges e.g. above inflation, supplements to existing, etc.
We oppose any increases in VAT/TVA/etc. and will help members minimise their liability.

We promote all, relevant, boating qualifications for our members and we encourage them to obtain these qualifications.

We will consider all effective methods to attract new members.
We will not accept block membership from other organisations but will invite individual members of those organisations to join.
All UK/EU members will pay subscriptions of £35 individual or £45 family (Oct 09).

New advertisers will have to pay in advance (Nov 08).
Classified advertisements would be accepted for payment on the website, but be marked as Trade (Jan 09).
Only discounters who advertise in Blue Flag will be sent a copy (Jan 08).

The administrators of the email lists may apply a ‘3 strikes and out’ policy to those who disregard the list rules. The Board may decide on immediate suspension from the lists for gross misconduct (Jan 08).
All email lists except Association Matters will be available to all to read, but posting will be limited to members only (July 08).
As the Forum Rules are published posts are no longer checked. The archives will be available to members only (Jan 09).