Elmbridge Council on the Thames want to bring in a Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPO) to fine boaters up to £400 for staying for more than 24hrs.
The council was made to re-consult after NBTA amongst others pointed out that boaters weren’t able to fill in the consultation due to not being notified about the consultation.
EA enforcement boat moored at Elmbridge on the Thames
We as NBTA met with the council to discuss solutions to the issues they raised in the PSPO. At one point in the meeting the council reps admitted the issues they have weren’t the ones mentioned in the PSPO but the fact that boats moor there longer than 24hrs. We asked if there was a more reasonable time that the council would be happy with boats staying. They weren’t interested in engaging with this question.
The council has now concluded the consultation and has decided to go forward with PSPO. A boater is taking legal action against the PSPO.
NBTA London needs your support to carry on our work. Please get in touch here if you would like to volunteer with us. Alternatively your donations are vital to us supporting boaters with their legal case work, campaign banners and other printed material as well as events. You can help us with your donations online here
As many of you know, when the CRT first proposed the full details of the Water “Safety” Zones, we calculated that 550 mooring spaces would be lost in Broxbourne and Tottenham/Hackney. In some places the CRT also proposed introducing a ban on double mooring and wider boats. Following the magnificent efforts of the boating community to push back against these “Safety” Zones, CRT initially appeared to desist from their implementation, in favour of a navigation forum of stakeholders. Unfortunately the CRT are still attempting to impose potentially the most draconian part of the original “Safety” Zones outline – the new no mooring sections. We now estimate that 295 casual mooring opportunities are at risk.
A CRT ‘Safety Zones’ No Mooring sign covered over with a black bin bag in Hackney on the lower Lea
In October of last year the CRT lied to us by stating that they were putting the safety zones on hold, pending a discussion within the Lea Navigation Forum meeting. However, before the first Forum meeting had taken place, the CRT had already installed no mooring signs on most of the ‘no mooring’ sites on their Water Safety Zone map. We (NBTA London) brought this dishonest behaviour to the attention of the Lee Navigation Forum. CRT’s response was to disregard the dishonesty of their own actions which undermined the whole Lee Navigation Consultation. We asked for reasoning from CRT to why each of the no mooring spaces were made as such. CRT didn’t provide this. We then provided a document stating our opinion of each no mooring site at the very next meeting. More than half a year later CRT have yet to give a proper response.
During that half year, boaters moored in places that are perfectly reasonable and safe have continued to receive unjustified threats from CRT. In total, CRT paid £24,840 from October – January to a car parking company called District Enforcement (DE) to attempt to implore our community not to moor on these sites. Thankfully people continue to moor in these places in large numbers. CRT stated that on January 10th the enforcement of the no mooring zones would begin. During this time we began the process of taking the CRT to court in a Judicial Review. While notices and emails to desist were sent to boaters, hundreds remained defiant, many staying up to 14 days before being replaced by another resistant boater. In the CRT notices left by DE they state that the boater is moored contrary to British Waterways Acts, Bye-laws, Conditions, Guidance etc. To investigate what kind of legal standing CRT thinks they have, our solicitors asked them to qualify which specific Acts and Bye-laws relate to the no mooring sites. Even when asked again by the solicitors, CRT failed to provide any Acts or Bye-laws to support their stance. They were unable to provide these because the CRT has no actual legal leg to stand on.
Tyrone Halligan, Amelia Friend and their two year old son Isaac are house boat dwellers affected by the ‘No Mooring’ Safety Zones.
Our caseworkers have been providing boaters with replies to CRT enforcement letters around the clock. In response, CRT responses have been weak and deflective. After one particular email exchange where we sought to clarify the CRT’s stance in relation to the law, the officer ended one of their email with: “Anyway, I’ll leave it there for now. Feel free to get back to me if you have any other questions I won’t be able to give a straight answer to.” This elusiveness hasn’t been exclusive to the legal side of the campaign, CRT’s public relations efforts regarding the matter are much the same. We have been successful in getting this campaign into wide range of press outlets. The CRT’s defensiveness includes refusing to quantify how many mooring spaces are at risk. Additionally, CRT have also spread untruths to the press, making ridiculous public statements such as, ‘enforcing no mooring sites does not have a negative impact on our community.’
Boaters continue to resist by mooring alongside some of the ‘No Mooring’ Safety Zone sites on the lower River Lea in Hackney
The boating community are continuing to resist the implementation of the ‘no moorings’ in the safety zones, yet CRT continues to waste money trying stop the resistance. CRT can only afford to waste so much money and incur so much bad press before they are forced to defer to our position on these ‘no mooring’ spaces. However for CRT to back down it will take our community’s continued resistance until CRT does.
Brief update (08.06.2022):
CRT have responded to the NBTA’s document outlining our position on the “red zones no mooring sites within the safety zones”. They have announced a reduction of no mooring restriction by a total of 157 metres. These include near or under pedestrian bridges and a few other places, often just an extra metre here or there. You can read CRT’s full response here
NBTA London needs your support to carry on our work. Please get in touch here if you would like to volunteer with us. Alternatively your donations are vital to us supporting boaters with their legal case work, campaign banners and other printed material as well as events. You can help us with your donations online here
Join us at our Community Summer event at the end of this month. We are having a picnic at the Walthamstow Marshes on Sunday 26th June 2022 – 12pm start. Click here for more details
The Environment Act 2021, which became law on 9th November, will remove the partial exemption for vessels from the Clean Air Act 1993.
Local authorities will now have the power to apply their Smoke Control Areas to vessels moored within the areas, under Section 73 and Schedule 12 of the Act. CRT and other navigation authorities have been asked to provide contact information for boat owners to local authorities where they need it to enforce Smoke Control Areas.
There is an exemption for smoke which is created to propel the vessel or to generate electricity. There is no exemption for heating. Local authorities can now impose fines of at least £175 for breaches of Smoke Control regulations.
Friends double moored whilst frozen in near Kensal Cemetery, Winter 2017
There is a danger that this will be used as a tool to remove boats from areas where the local authorities are opposed to boat dwellers, or where local residents are hostile to liveaboard boaters. Tower Hamlets Council have already started harassing boaters. Notices from the council have been issued to boaters about their engines which go much further than is stated in the new Act. NBTA London has sent a complaint to the council, telling them they are going further than new Act gives them ability to do.
The new Act has opened the door to more attacks on our community.
We must stand together.
Please get involved in NBTA: more people involved means we can do more to defend our way of life.
Get in touch if you’d like to join us, we’d love to hear from you.
Canal and River Trust (CRT) are attempting to bring in yet another restriction to all boaters, including boat dwellers without a home mooring, which will prohibit mooring nationwide on any bends or near bridges, regardless of whether it blocks navigation or not.
This proposal has not gone through any consultation process, but has been underhandedly tagged on to CRT’s “No Mooring” strategy that we are currently experiencing predominantly on the River Lee. The new restriction of no mooring on bends or near bridges refuses to take in to account the safe mooring on the bends of wide waterways such as the River Lee and parts of the Grand Union Canal.
It is the view of NBTA London that if safe navigation is not impeded by mooring on a bend or near a bridge, then to restrict mooring is simply reducing the possibility of liveaboard and leisure boaters alike from stopping in an available and perfectly feasible mooring.
Banning boaters from perfectly safe casual moorings on the bends of wide waterways begs the question of whether already existing, online long term moorings, located on bends or under bridges, and from which CRT derives income, will be removed.
Of course this won’t happen.
Just another example of CRT’s hypocrisy when it comes to attacking our community.
A volunteer organisation formed in 2009 campaigning and providing advice for itinerant boat dwellers on Britain’s inland and coastal waterways
National Bargee Travellers Association - London Branch 