THE Port of London Authority (PLA) has allowed ferries operating on the tidal Thames to increase their speed to a maximum of 25 knots—28.7mph, that is causing uproar amongst houseboat owners.
What is different is that this time there is a growing battle between Thames houseboat owners, the PLA and the Thames Class IV ferry operators. The whole of the tidal Thames is categorised as MCA Class C waters and the PLA has recently allowed the Class IV ferries an increase in their maximum speed to 25 knots with the resultant increased wash size, writes John Hilden.
Causing damage
Unfortunately this higher wash is now causing damage to house boats moored on the tidal river and a huge increase in the number of complaints. The PLA responded initially with indifference and then by advising house boaters to provide grab rails, handholds, battens in bookshelves, leeboards on bunk beds with fiddle rails around cookers and worktops which, according to the PLA, are all features common to vessels afloat in Category C Waters.
This PLA indifference has naturally caused uproar and there is now a serious move to have the stretch of the tidal river from Teddington to Brentford re-classified as MCA Category B waters which will then force a reduction in the maximum speed of the ferries, this will in effect be of benefit to narrowboat owners because, as it stands at the moment, narrowboats are not qualified vessels suitable for Category C waters, hence the ban.
Boris Johnson's idea
All this goes back to Boris Johnson's desire to increase the amount of passenger ferry usage on the Thames and one of the ways to do this is by having much quicker ferry services. Unfortunately he failed to think through the consequences of such an action and the result is as above.
The organisation leading the way on this is OPLAC www.oplac.org and then click on iWash on the left-hand list.