During any year your officers attend dozens of meetings mostly with navigation authorities, principally CRT, the Broads Authority, the Middle Levels and the Environment Agency. We also meet and talk with officers of local authorities and, on behalf of members, a myriad of other people and organisations to help to resolve problems and to enable us to give guidance where we can.
We know we have influence, albeit positive change is slow to appear! You will know we were founded in 1963 by a group of liveaboard boaters moored on Doyle Carte Island, just downstream from Shepperton Lock, on the non-Tidal Thames. The circumstances that lead to our foundation are with us today hence the activity outlined above.
Living afloat, residential boating, being a liveaboard, choose whichever title you prefer, is more popular than ever but has changed in character over the course of the last few years. In 1963 living afloat was primarily a lifestyle choice. Probably fair to say the majority choosing it in ’63 would be classed as eccentric, and their motivation was a love of boats and boating and a need to be on the water. Over the last 15 years this has changed, markedly so in the last 10 years.
Of course, there are still people coming to the waterways primarily as a lifestyle choice, but they are probably outnumbered by people whose primary motivation is to put an affordable roof over their heads. I say “probably” because there are no robust statistics. The only reliable figures are gross numbers of registered boats, how they are used is not accurately recorded across all navigation authorities, so we must rely on anecdote and observation.
A significant proportion, almost certainly the majority, of those whose motivation is affordable housing will be continuous cruisers, some by choice, but many because they are unable to find a mooring operator who will allow them too openly live aboard.
One of the challenges for our community is the difficulty in obtaining planning approval for residential moorings. A significant problem has been the total silence regarding residential moorings in government planning guidance; this has meant planning officers find themselves treating applications as if they were for bricks and mortar or poured concrete and steel. Another hurdle is that most waterways are in “green belt” which creates a red line very few planning committees will cross. Over the years the RBOA have been battling in support of members trying to get planning approval and/or fighting eviction often because of the lack of residential planning. At the same time, we have been talking to Government departments, local authorities and navigation authorities trying to get a change in attitude, Until now with little success.
Suddenly all the years of pleading and arguing our cause seem to be bearing fruit! We can’t take credit for all of it, but circumstances have certainly changed in our favour. Perhaps the most significant is the government’s determination to change planning law and practise. In late 2024 they launched a consultation seeking guidance on changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). The RBOA submitted two responses. One a very detailed narrative paper and the other responding to the online consultation document with literally hundreds of questions. Of course, we made much of the need for the new NPPF to recognise the importance and value of the provision of more moorings, especially residential moorings. We know we weren’t alone CRT made similar points.
The government announced recently they are intending to change planning rules so that decisions in some circumstances, can be made by the planning officers without reference to a planning committee. This is potentially very good news for us, it is RBOA experience that it is often the case that officers approve an application only for it to be turned down by the planning committee. Usually because of ill-informed prejudicial comments from the public influencing the councillors.
However, recently the RBOA had a significant success on the planning front. The Elmbridge Local Plan was called in for examination by the National Planning Inspectorate. The first stage of the process called for written representations to which we submitted a paper. The second stage was a hearing at which the Inspector scrutinised the Elmbridge Plan in detail which took the form, in the main, of asking very detailed questions. On the issue of residential mooring some of the Inspectors’ questions were taken directly from the RBOA written submission and we were invited by the Inspector to attend the hearing to give evidence, which we did.
The Inspector asked the Local Authority why, when they were formulating their plan, they hadn’t consulted the RBOA they were unable to give a coherent answer. So, the Inspector announced that she would take an extended coffee break to allow the Elmbridge Planning Officer time to consult directly with the RBOA and said she expected to hear a positive report of that conversation on her return! The nett result is that in the Inspectors final report she instructed Elmbridge to reverse their conclusion that they couldn’t provide ten residential moorings and explicitly told them to do so.
As a result, the RBOA are now in direct conversations with the Elmbridge Planning Officers, success is not guaranteed but the fact we are talking is significant progress.
On the extreme east of our world lives Alan Wildman who has for several years very effectively represented the RBOA on the Broads and Middle Levels. Alan recently became the Chairman of the Middle Levels Navigation Advisory Committee,
Much of what we do we can’t shout about because it is dealing with individual boaters’ problems, inevitably very personal. The cases tend to be about dealing with bureaucracy in some form often, as said earlier, to do with planning issues, but can be NHS, Navigation Authorities and most frequently moorings operators.
A relatively recent phenomenon has been helping members with old boats, in some cases historically valuable, which are no longer deemed seaworthy. If the owner’s insurance does not include wreck cover or, if it does, does not cover sinking whilst moored they face a potentially huge bill. So be warned, check if your boat insurance covers you if the catastrophe that is sinking befalls you.
You will know that Canal & River Trust has Commissioned a review of their licencing regime. The RBOA made two submissions one we submitted before the commission launched their consultation (you can read that letter on the RBOA website) and, of course, we responded to the consultation. The Commissioners are having face to face meetings with a very small number of respondents, the RBOA go before them on 16th May, we will report on the meeting in due course.
As detailed above we have some justification for believing we ae making progress on planning issues and we are helping members negotiate some of the challenges of our world. However, we need more members. Please try to get your boating friends to join us, especially if they are young! Young in this context means under 50!