New London moorings plan

A NEW draft mooring plan for London will be finalised by Canal & River Trust at a meeting next week, with a view to bringing it into use this summer, with narrowboatworld obtaining a copy of the proposals.

The plan is the result of numerous complaints by visitors to the city being unable to find moorings due to the propensity of 'continuous moorers' taking up the prime locations.

Changes

The plan proposes changes to a number of visitor moorings in central London, between Kensal Green in the West and Victoria Park in the East, with it being explained:

'The plan has been developed to meet the increasing demand for mooring space at popular locations in London, introducing a new Visitor Mooring site at Broadway Market and changes to stay times'.

Seven days instead of 14

It has been accepted that more shorter than 14 day moorings are needed at eight central London popular locations to cater for growing numbers of visitors, and consequently '14 days' will be changed to '7 days' at these locations.

New visitor moorings will be introduced at Broadway Market in Hackney and Rembrandt Gardens at Little Venice, but will most likely be subject to prior booking, with the sites policed by volunteer 'caretakers' that will be recruited.

Two days moorings

There was the suggestion to develop two days moorings with 'no return' rules, but it was believed these would require monitoring that cannot be managed at this time.

The proposals will be discussed at a Better Relationships on London's Waterways Group (BRG), and it is expected that the proposals will be accepted and the signs in place either late June or early July.

The sites

The visitor mooring sites, some of which are new that are being proposed are as follows:

Kensal Green (GU Paddington Arm)
Little Venice (GU Paddington Arm)
Rembrandt Gardens, Little Venice (GU Paddington Arm)
Paddington Basin (GU Paddington Arm)
Camden (Regent's)
Broadway Market, Hackney (Regent's)
Victoria Park, Old Ford (Regent's)

There will be no changes to the Islington Visitor Moorings, which are subject to a separate management plan.