THE Canal & River Trust has matched £30,000 with Islington Borough Council in providing electric bollards along a stretch of the Grand Union Canal in its borough.
Other councils are now showing interest with Oxford City Council wanting an electricity supply for boats moored along the Oxford Canal in the city to create an ‘eco-mooring zone’ to cut down air pollution in the city, Alan Tilbury reports.
Seeking funding
The council is seeking funding from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and wants the Trust to match it.
With many complaints of the smoke from the boats moored along the canal, the council believe that this would not only improve air quality but also improve the bad relations between boaters and nearby residents.
'Hot-spot'
Islington however obtained its Defra funding as it was a recognised air pollution 'hot-spot', but the stretch of the Oxford Canal where the boats are moored, is not.
There is no evidence to back a claim that air quality limits are being breached or that boats are causing a statutory nuisance by the burning of fuel.