BWML leads marina meltdown

THE Canal & River Trust (CaRT) flagship Sawley Marina on the Trent at Long Eaton is leading the meltdown of inland marina berth occupancy, writes Allan Richards.

An independent investigation carried out in January and February this year has found the marina, which is operated by CaRT's wholly owned subsidiary BWML, only has 400 of its 620 berths occupied. That's more than one in three berths empty!

Red Hill Marina

The investigation was carried out by planning officers in connection with the re-submission of a planning application for a 553 leisure berth marina development at the existing Red Hill Marina at the bottom of the Soar. It was undertaken when it became apparent that out-of-date British Waterways information was being used to justify need for the marina.

Officers surveyed 15 marinas within a 40 mile radius of Red Hill and found average occupancy 77.8% rather than the 98% claimed. Between them the surveyed marinas had 3,355 berths but only 2,610 were occupied. The report produced suggests that there may be even more than 745 empty berths within a 40 miles radius because two marinas surveyed did not reply and smaller marinas did not form part of the survey.

The investigation also documented some marinas that have planning permission but are not yet open or, in two cases, not currently being developed.

Just 10 provisional bookings

A 150 berth marina at market Bosworth on the Ashby Canal due to open in 2014 says it has just 10 provisional berth bookings, with only 38 having signed up to its website's newsletter. Construction of a 220 berth marina at North Kilworth (Leicestershire) on the Grand Union has not started although planning permission was granted it 2012.

The giant 550 berth Onley/Barby development on the North Oxford Canal was granted planning permission last year. However, anecdotal information suggests that investors have pulled out as they do not see the marina being filled due to lack of demand.

Empty berths will increase dramatically

Obviously, if these developments proceed then empty berths will increase dramatically.

Pillings Lock Marina (12 miles from Red Hill), which faces a blockade by Canal & River Trust unless a new Network Access Agreement (NAA) is signed, was found to have 243 of its 315 berths in use. That's 77.1%, which indicates that its occupancy rate is average for the area.

Unfortunately for Pillings, but perhaps understandably, the report does not state which of the marinas surveyed are subject to NAA.

What can be stated quite categorically is that only one of BWML's 20 marinas nationwide is subject to NAA and it is not Sawley!

Inaccurate licence claim

The investigation also shoots holes through the claim that the number of boats on CaRT's waterways is increasing by 2.5% per year. It found the opposite to be true with boat numbers decreasing over the last three years.

The 2012/13 figure given shows 33,227, some 4.4% down on the previous year and well below the ‘over 35,000' still being quoted by CaRT.

What the report does not mention, however, is that an increasing proportion of the boats still remaining on CaRT's waterways chose not to have a home mooring. Three variations of numbers quoted by CaRT in the last six months are:

1. 60-70 per month
2. 67 in one month
3. 94 in the last two months of 2013

A crude estimate would be that last year some 600 decided that a home mooring in a marina or elsewhere was something they could do without.

How can marinas cope with this declining berth occupancy?