Day boat hire company can sell alcohol to its customers

A DAY BOAT HIRE company on London's canals has been told it can sell beer and wine to its hirers.

This is despite residents' concerns it could lead to alcohol-fuelled antisocial behaviour, Roger Fox reports.

Manned cruises

Westminster City Council allowed that the GoBoat company could sell up to two cans of beer per customer or a bottle of wine between two on its manned cruises between the hours of 9am and 10pm seven days a week. Roger Fox reports.

One objector pointed out 'that they will climb over our boats, they will moor their boats to our boats, they will climb over the gates to get to our flowerbeds for a pee'.

And another objector wanted the application to be turned down 'after witnessing public sex, nudity, intimidation, harassment and damage to their properties'.

But GoBoat believed if it sold the alcohol it would retain a lot of that control and it wanted to make it a high-quality professional operation.

Stopped on self drive boats

GoBoat had already stopped customers drinking on its range of self-driving rental boats following protests from residents and narrowboat owners.

The committee was told that customers had to undergo bag checks before boarding otherwise they were refused entry.

Canal & River Trust had already given permission.