Canal River and Trust (CRT) is trying to further marginalise us by bringing in more reduced mooring times on the Grand Union, attempting to ban boats from 295 no mooring spaces in ‘safety’ zones on the River Lee, and introducing more mooring restrictions and a total of 1.1 kilometres of new chargeable moorings in Central London. 

With the Clean Air Act putting boats under the same clean air zone restrictions as houses, the Government has made it harder for many of us to heat our homes and has opened us up to more harassment from land based NIMBYs. 

We must stand together and continue to defend our nomadic way of life. A  way of life that has been on the firing line for some time. Some older members of the community will still remember when British Waterways (BW) put forward their Bill to government in 1989, they tried to make it a criminal offence to have a boat without a home mooring on most UK waterways.

Due to action by some great individuals that particular attack was defeated and the Bill was made into the British Waterways Act 1995, where the right for us to have a boat without a home mooring, as long as we use them for navigation and not stay continuously longer than 14 days in one place, unless reasonable, was enshrined in law.

We are in a different time from then and we need more than great individuals; we need collective action. The resistance to ‘safety’ zones on the River Lea is great example of how we can defend our way life.

Let’s come together to march on CRT Little Venice office on Saturday 26th March and using the press, make it heard that Boats are Homes!

More information here:

https://nbtalondon.wordpress.com/2022/02/04/we-must-march-on-crt-offices/

Facebook event here: https://bit.ly/boatshomes26