"We will have to move around constantly."

BOATERS who have been on the the moorings at Richmond are complaining that now the council has been granted a bye-law to move them that they will 'have to move around constantly'.

The bye-law making the unauthorised mooring a criminal offence comes into effect on the 13th March, which means that the owners of the boats moored on council owned property without permission could be fined or imprisoned, (Another council gets tough) Alan Tilbury tells us.

Nowhere to go

One of the boaters told the local newspaper that they have nowhere to go so will have to move around constantly, but some of the families have children at a local school and that narrowboating is a traditional English thing especially in somewhere like Richmond.

Council Cabinet Member for Environment, Pamela Fleming, states the council had long been under enormous pressure from residents to do something about illegal mooring, and that all the correct procedures had been carried out in terms of implementing the bylaw, and the council did everything it could to publicise the consultation, which took place late last year, but she had not been contacted by any of the boaters to discuss the issue.