Thames boat waste cleared away

IT WAS in September that officers scrapped three unregistered boats from the Thames riverside around Cigarette Island and Hurst Park, near Hampton Court Palace.

This followed a year of enforcement action against the long-running problem, Janet Friend reports.

Rubbish being removed

But two of the discarded boats remain with rubbish spoiling the banks of the river, the rubbish being removed.

So officers from the Environment Agency, Elmbridge Borough Council, Surrey County Council, and Surrey Police returned to Molesey this week to be on hand as all was cleared away. (Image by Elmbridge Borough Council.)

It was in April that the boaters who persistently flouted the short stay rules were hit with civil trespass proceedings, with an owner of an unregistered boat fined more than £2,000 for being moored without a licence in June.

Legal proceedings against 10 boaters

In March 2023, the Environment Agency began legal proceedings against 10 boaters who refused to move. The hearing took place over three days with the written judgement finding in favour of the Environment Agency on all points.

All the boats were subsequently either licenced or scrapped and owners fined.