Continuous moorers ousted

CONTINUOUS moorers, without a fixed mooring are to be ousted from their regularly used moorings in Islington on the Regents Canal.

Residents complaining of the anti-social behaviour and noisy generators of some of the moorers who overstay at the seven and 14 days visitor moorings have persuaded Canal & River Trust (CART) to turn them into permanent moorings, Alan Tilbury reveals.

Overstaying

This way the residents believe that most of them will only be visited occasionally, so cutting down the problems, naming the boaters 'itinerant travellers', moving from one temporary moorings to another and often overstaying.

At a meeting of Friends of Regent's Canal, it was told that the Trust are investigating, and considering turning the visitor moorings into permanent moorings, thus of course gaining an income.

Won't solve the problem

Ian Shacklock, Chairman of the Friends, explained:

"Permanent moorings won't solve the problem or the housing crisis. It will probably mean rich people buying narrowboats as second homes and hardly ever using them."

Regular narrowboatworld contributor and Secretary of Regent's Network, Del Brenner, believes the problem of anti-social behaviour could easily be solved by an officer from the Trust policing the area, remarking:

"Boat users need to be reminded what they can and can't do. If someone is pumping smoke through a chimney or blasting a generator at night then it needs to be stopped.

"What we don't want to do is lose our precious visitor moorings. There are not enough of them in the capital already as it is. It's not just itinerant travellers who use temporary visitor moorings. Holidaymakers and visitors to the London canals use them."