Tag Archives: Paddington

Chargeable Moorings Remain Underused, However the Price Has Been Reduced for Winter

December 6, 2024 NBTA London Leave a comment

It’s been over a year since Canal and River Trust (CRT) started introducing chargeable moorings as part of their plan to bring down boat numbers in London.

So far only part of the plan to bring in 1.1km of chargeable moorings to London has been implemented but already these changes have had a great impact on boaters who move through these areas of London.

In the CRT’s London Mooring Strategy, the length of chargeable moorings in London could go up to 1.5km in the next year.

CRT claimed to have consulted boaters in 2022 on the need for such moorings but it has not provided the results of this consultation. Notably, their 2022 “Issues & Challenges Report” did not mention a shortage of moorings, instead it highlighted boaters concerns about disrepair and lack of facilities.

Little Venice chargeable moorings in August 2024. Once brimming with life, now desolate.

Chargeable moorings were first introduced here in 2019, but they were priced at £10 to £12 a night. Despite low demand at that price, CRT has significantly raised the price, leading to even more space in central London being wasted, empty of boaters.

According to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request submitted in June 2024, only 1,203 bookings were made between October 2023 and May 2024 (out of a possible 7,224 bookings), indicating that the moorings were used at just 17% capacity.

The FOI revealed that CRT earned a gross income of £36,532 from these bookings on an average of just over £30 per night. We believe this is barely enough to cover the cost of administering prebookable moorings.

The rationale for them is to enable people to book a berth without having to find somewhere to moor on their own in central London. However, the data tells us that the demand is simply not there: only 16.5% of the availability has been utilised.

Rather than improving access to the capital, the charges have effectively priced many existing boaters out of central London, leaving prime locations empty. As a result, many boaters must now cruise for a full day to find a mooring, or risk being fined.

There is a knock-on effect of leaving these locations empty too: those who cannot afford to pay are forced to moor in now even more crowded areas, making a trip through London even more precarious for boaters with or without a home mooring.

Vandalised chargeable mooring sign in London

The situation has also worsened safety concerns for boaters and local residents, as these once-bustling sections of towpath have been deserted, leaving them more vulnerable to crime.

Others may opt for a River Only license, staying on the Lee and Stort as London’s main canal network becomes too expensive, a move that will reduce CRT’s revenue further.

The decimation of London’s boating community and the safety that it brings to the canal here means those boaters from outside London whom CRT are trying to entice with their pricey prebookable moorings are likely to avoid the capital altogether.

A subsequent FOI in October 2024 revealed that three Mooring Rangers, tasked with managing these moorings, cost CRT £104k annually, far exceeding the (assumed) £73k annual income from the moorings. This suggests CRT may even be operating this policy at a loss. It is an illogical policy that is costing boaters and CRT, with no clear benefit to either.

In November 2024, CRT decided to reduce the price of these chargeable moorings – from between £25 and £35 per night to £20 per night – as a result of NBTA London’s campaigning.

We look forward to seeing whether the reduced price has any positive uptick in the number of bookings made, or if there is in fact NO case for charging per night for mooring on the public towpath at all.

Due NBTA London campaigning CRT has also agreed to stop charging to moor in Camden and says they no longer plans to roll out more chargable moorings across London including Uxbridge, Kensal, Broadway Market and Victoria Park. However, CRT has remained committed to charging boaters to be able to moor in Little Venice, Paddington Basin, Kings Cross and Angel.

NBTA believe these mooring spots should be open for anyone boating through London, as is the norm across the entire canal network, and that the privatisation of public spaces should continue to be resisted.

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

Article, News, Newsletter

Where have all the boats gone?

August 16, 2024 NBTA London Leave a comment

In March, the Canal and River Trust (CRT) announced that they will be introducing 800 meters of new pre-bookable moorings at 6 sites across London: Kings Cross, Camden, Victoria Park, Broadway Market, Kensal Green and Cowley North. This is in addition to existing chargeable moorings at Islington, Little Venice and Paddington.

Since then, members of NBTA London have been working together to campaign against the loss of these free mooring spaces, and to tackle the CRT’s assertions that boaters struggle to find somewhere to moor in London and therefore these pre-bookable moorings are justifiable.

These pre-bookable moorings are now live but if you have been anywhere near these moorings, you’ll be wondering who are the boaters that so desperately want to moor in these spots, because they’re not in London. These moorings, which used to be full of bustling boater life, are now empty and quiet. Locals have already started to comment that they do not feel safe walking these strips of towpath at night again. In response to this, an outreach program targeted at locals and boaters, called “Where have all the boats gone?”, is about to be launched to find out how the lack of boats in these areas is negatively impacting their use of the canal and towpath.

To make matters worse, more chargeable moorings now seem to be popping up, almost over night, with little or no warning. Embarrassingly for CRT, these pre-bookable moorings are clearly already failing. Based on the lack of uptake, the CRT have been sent several FOIs regarding the use of these moorings, but unfortunately they have not been very forthcoming with their responses so far.

Chargeable Mooring Sign in London, subverted by local boaters to read, “No Charges apply”

As many boaters have expressed an interest in continuing to use these moorings as standard, 14 day mooring. Here is guidance regarding the possible implications of mooring in these spots: https://nbtalondon.co.uk/2024/07/12/should-i-moor-on-the-payable-moorings-some-brief-guidance-and-advice/

Let CRT know that you don’t agree with this new change by using their contact form here: https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/contact-us/ways-to-contact-us

Article, Local issues, News, Newsletter

New Chargeable Moorings Across London

May 13, 2024 stopboatlicencediscrimination 1 Comment

The CRT announced in the Boaters Update 22/03/24 that they are introducing around 800 meters of new pre-bookable moorings across 6 sites in London this year. The new sites are Kings Cross, Camden, Victoria Park, Broadway Market, Kensal Green and Cowley North, which will be joining Islington, Little Venice and Paddington.

These moorings come at a premium of £25-£35 per night and bring the total mooring space at this price to approx 1,500 meters. 1,500 meters would fit around 95 single moored 50 foot boats. This is an attempt to displace boats from the capital, we have seen already that these chargeable moorings mostly sit empty, so there is no justification for making more unless it is indeed an attempt to move boats out of London.

The eco moorings at Kings Cross and Angel are now £35 per night, as of the 1st of April, new sites at Kings Cross and Camden are also now available to book online. The other new sites will be phased in throughout the year. 2024 is looking to be a bad year for boaters at the hands of the CRT, first the surcharge which -if left unchecked- will threaten our whole way of life, and now these chargeable moorings, which will have a direct and very tangible impact on boaters living in and around London in 2024 and beyond.

CRT are saying that it is less than 10% of London’s moorings that are now chargeable, but all except Cowley are in one 10 mile stretch of central London (to add to Little Venice and Paddington) which will make travelling across that stretch without paying increasingly difficult.

Article, Local issues, nbta london, News, Newsletter

Chargeable, Bookable Moorings

November 30, 2023 stopboatlicencediscrimination Leave a comment

In 2016, prior to launching the London Mooring Strategy, which was published in 2018, CRT and NBTA-London had round-the-table discussions about CRT’s thoughts on “pre-bookable” moorings. NBTA made it explicitly clear that if there were any “pre-bookable” moorings to be created, then they should be on the offside, and that tow-path moorings should never be chargeable.

Instead, CRT proceeded to make use of any vacant offside space not yet used for mooring for “long term”, or “residential” moorings, rather than increasing mooring space for visitors who were willing to book ahead, often making deals with third parties who owned the offside land. Two such set of moorings is at Broadway Market on the Regent, which in particular impedes navigation in what was already a very busy part of the London network, whilst overlooking the opportunity to create “pre-bookable” moorings; the other being Matchmakers on the River Lea, where the installation of those moorings meant CRT with their ‘safety’ zones are trying to enforce a ‘no mooring’ site on the towpath.

Yet, this is taken from CRT’s website:

“It’s really important that navigation is maintained and that it’s not impeded by moored boats. The inner London waterways are very busy with many different types of boater: liveaboard, leisure, freight, and business craft as well as increasing numbers of unpowered craft. This measure is intended to ensure that there is clear navigation for everyone in these busy areas.”

Their policy for safe navigation goes into the ether, however when it comes to the possibility of monetising new moorings, such as those on the offside at Broadway Market on the Regent.

Broadway Market, Regents Canal. Pic by Flickr/@scratch_n_sniff

Seven years following CRT’s first discussions with NBTA, CRT have now taken away several “casual”, “visitor” or towpath moorings, making them “pre-bookable”, and furthermore, have started charging extra. Usually, a CRT licence includes the right to moor on any towpath without extra charge, but CRT are turning 1.1km of London’s regular towpath into new ‘Chargeable’ Moorings that would cost an additional £25 extra a day. CRT’s argument for doing so is to make it ‘fairer’ for past-time and full-time liveaboard boaters alike to have a chance of mooring up in popular parts of the canal network. When we checked the facts behind the manipulated CRT survey on how successful the Paddington Basin chargeable moorings are, a Freedom Of Information Request reveals that these moorings have only been used 25% of the time – the rest of the time they remained empty and unused.

The latest moorings to be eradicated from public, free-for-all use are in Little Venice and Paddington Basin, but this is just the beginning .

On reading the T&Cs for what CRT call “pre-bookable”, but are actually chargeable moorings, included in these T&Cs are “planned” eco moorings on the Regent at Kings Cross and on Sweetwater in the Olympic Park on the Lee Navigation, strongly implying that these eco moorings may also become chargeable. NBTA also infer from this that the existing eco moorings on the Regent at Angel may become chargeable too, not just “pre-bookable”.

Aside from being financially exclusive and therefore fundamentally unfair in the first place, the quantity of chargeable moorings is not proportionate to the needs of boat owners. Lots of these bookable, chargeable mooring spaces will either be paid for by boaters who can’t find public towpath mooring since CRT have reduced those spaces, or they will remain empty because people a) can’t afford them, and b) don’t want them. If they remain largely empty, this may then be a great excuse for CRT to turn them into private moorings – as was the case at Here East moorings on the River Lee.

CRT announce itinerant boat dwellers will pay higher licence fees than others

Just before this newsletter went to press, the Canal and River Trust (CRT) announced that it plans to charge boats without home moorings more than boats with home moorings.

The implications of this are devastating. CRT will now be able to use boat licence fees as a way of removing the travelling boat dweller community from the waterways. It is more important than ever that we join together as a united community to stop CRT in their tracks. We will be sending round a ballot to all members of the NBTA to ask for your input on what action we take next. If you are not already a member, please sign up now to contribute to this vital decision. We have also organised an online meeting to coordinate our fight back. Please join us on Monday 9th October at 7pm. The access details for the meeting can be found on page 3. We hope to see you all there.

Article, Local issues, nbta london, News, Newsletter

NEW ECO MOORING PLANS

January 5, 2023 stopboatlicencediscrimination Leave a comment

Westminster council have just held a consultation period for a new eco mooring zone in Paddington. If plans go ahead this will be the third eco zone in London. The other eco zones are either side of the Islington Tunnel and in Kings Cross in the borough of Camden.

In the Paddington eco mooring plans they contextualise the need for eco moorings and how it can benefit boaters and residents. They also mention pollution has caused the hospital ward near the canal to close on occasions. The council said they could not share any details about the cause of the pollution due to GDPR reasons. NBTA London is in the process of finding out more about the hospital ward closures and the reasons for them by means of a Freedom of Information request.

Paddington Basin, picture by Marc Barrot/Flickr

One particular aspect of the plan is appealing. They have presented the idea of giving grants to boaters to cover the costs of converting boats so they are able to use the electric points (total of £1445 per boat for wiring, fixtures, consumer unit, electrical appliance). However, this mock costing does not consider labour costs and is vague so we can’t be sure whether it’s suitable for all boats. How they would decide which boaters receive the funding is also not clear. As stated in the pamphlet, these conversion grants are not guaranteed. The council will have to apply for funding but there is a worry that the conversion grants idea is tokenistic.

NBTA London met with Westminster council to ask for more details about the eco zone plans. Present at the meeting were 2 members of K&A consultants, a member of Westminster council and a member of CRT. The Westminster council member played the politician and gave no real answers to our questions stating that the plan is dependent on the results of the consultation and available funding. It was clear the council didn’t want to commit to anything. However, we did propose some ideas on how they could make the eco moorings suitable for more boaters which were received positively:

Provide electrical heaters that can be borrowed by boaters.

This would mean boats with off-shore power hook-up wouldn’t need to adapt their boats and they could plug the heaters into their existing plugs.

Integrate a battery charger into the electrical point.

This would mean boats wouldn’t need to run their engines or diesel generators and they wouldn’t need to buy any extra appliances to fulfil their electrical needs. Especially as not all boats will be suitable for conversion.

King’s Cross, Regents Canal, picture by Diamond Geezer/Flickr

All London boroughs have clean air plans to meet clean air targets because illegal levels of air pollution are still being recorded in London, including in the city of Westminster (levels of nitrogen dioxide have been recorded up to 50% higher than legal levels in various areas across London). Despite the pollution from boats being negligible in comparison to the pollution caused by road transport and domestic/commercial heating systems, where we can, it’s good to reduce our emissions. However, in order to transition, boaters need time and support. Stoves and diesel engines are crucial to heat boats and to supply enough power during the Winter months, and are necessary for the majority of the waterways that are without electrical charging points. Then there is the issue of space and money to make boats suitable to use the electric points.

National Bargee Travellers Association – London Branch

Tag Archives: Paddington

A volunteer organisation formed in 2009 campaigning and providing advice for itinerant boat dwellers on Britain’s inland and coastal waterways