Boaters leave after mooring fees introduced

Published: Thursday, 20 July 2017

FOR many years boaters have moored at moorings on the Medway in Tonbridge, but when the landowner took over he brought in mooring fees, to which the boaters objected, and have now all departed.

It was the former Rendezvous Boatyard, that was turned into a moorings with water and electricity that has been home to 11 mostly narrowboats for many years, with the property leased from the landlord, Alan Tilbury reports.

Leaving TonbridgeRepossessed the site

But last October the owner of the land repossessed the site and introduced realistic mooring fees, to which the boaters objected, even to attempting a Crowdfunding page to raise money to fight the new terms, but to no avail.

The landowner told that he was not evicting any boaters, but they had to pay realistic mooring fees in common with other such sites and was working with the boaters to reach new licensing agreements, but the boaters did not want to pay.

The outcome was that last Sunday they all vacated the site looking for somewhere to moor on the river. (Picture by Graham Longley.)