Winter Mooring Permits
Boaters will be able to choose:
- General Towpath Permits: cheaper and more flexible, allowing mooring anywhere on the towpath for a month or more, with a few exceptions.
- Selected Visitor Moorings: a selection of the most popular sites offered for winter moorings in previous years.
- Central London Winter Mooring Sites: four locations (West, Central, East 1 & East 2).
Various durations
We are told that following feedback from boaters, the Trust is now offering winter mooring permits of one, two, three four or five months' duration, starting on the first day of the month. There are unlimited numbers of general towpath permits available.
Continuous cruisers will be able to book general mooring permits on Wednesday 1st October. For continuous cruisers seeking to book selected visitor moorings or central London winter moorings, four and five month permits will be available on 1st October, with two and three month permits on sale on 14th October and one month permits bookable from 1st November. Other boaters will be able to secure winter moorings at selected visitor sites from 1st November.
Asking boaters
In April 2015, the Trust will be asking boaters for their views about winter moorings and how they could be improved for the following winter.
Dean Davies, Interim Head of Customer Services at Canal & River Trust, explained:
"While many boaters enjoy winter cruising, every year hundreds of boaters decide they want to settle in one place as the weather turns harsher or because it's harder to get around because of stoppages.
"We want to make it as easy as possible for boaters without a home mooring to make the choices that work best for them. The feedback we got from boaters about the new winter mooring permits was really encouraging so we've decided to continue with the trial: once again, we'll be asking boaters for their views in the spring."