A BARGEE who moors her boat near Marlborough has condemned the Canal & River Trust over its consultation for people living on waterways.

Pamela Smith who is chairman of the National Bargee Travellers Association labelled the trust's consultation as shambolic, undemocratic and misleading and said her organisation had no faith in the outcome.

She said: "We anticipate that boaters without a home mooring will be penalised by discriminatory rises in licence fees based on the prejudiced view of our community put forward in the interim report. The association will do whatever it can to defend bargee travellers against unfair increases in the licence fee."

The association hit out after speaking to boaters who attended workshops that formed the second stage of the consultation. Boaters were also unhappy that many people who wanted to go to the workshops were unable to get places. Ms Smith said: "People who wanted to attend the workshops were excluded in advance by not being offered a place. However due to the very poor attendance, the workshops themselves were not capable of being the representative forum claimed by trust."

The bargee group has been fighting the Canal & River Trust for months over what they claim are harsh conditions placed on boaters who do not have permanent moorings as say they are being unfairly moved on and fined.

A spokesman said that the first stage of consultation was biased and inaccurate. The spokesman said: "Rather than conducting a balanced and contextualised analysis of the issues raised, it simply repeats the prejudiced allegations of the majority and fails to recognise both that boat dwellers without a home mooring are a numerical minority and that consultation is not a majority voting exercise.

"The report creates the perception that a very large number of boat dwellers without home moorings are creating congestion by hardly moving, when the reality is that most are being forced to travel in a range of at least 20 miles over their licence period otherwise their boat will be seized and removed.

"This means they cannot be causing this sort of congestion or staying in one area for long periods as the report wrongly states repeatedly."