Hyde Park visitors face ‘dark summer’ as boating is banned on Serpentine

ON A sunny afternoon it is difficult to conjure an image that is as quintessentially English as rowing out on to the Serpentine.

But boating in London’s Hyde Park is in jeopardy with the lake facing a “dark summer” and fears “alternative uses” are being considered for its future.

It comes as a row between the Royal Parks and Bluebird Boating means that no company has the right to rent boats or pedalos on the Serpentine or on the lake in Greenwich Park.

The dispute could end in court as the boating company fights the charity’s refusal to grant an extension of its contract while a competitive tender process is launched.

But it means that London’s oldest boating lake, which has hosted races and regattas as well as countless pleasure boats in its almost 300-year history, is closed for business for the foreseeable future.

Amid confusion over the decision by the Royal Parks not to extend the contract or offer it to a different company, there are suggestions that the management is looking at other things to do with the Serpentine.

The pages detailing boating on both lakes have disappeared from the charity’s website.

“There is no boating at the moment,” said Peter Scott, director of Bluebird Boating, who has been running the service in the two royal parks since 1998.

“Normally we operate all year round and on a fine day like Sunday I could have had a thousand people out on the

Serpentine in boats. We are here, the boats are here and people are so frustrated by lockdowns that it has brought out the desire for fresh air and exercise.

“How does it showcase Britain to the world with the country’s most iconic boating lake closed? Sometimes we will have 5,000 visitors on the boats every day in the summer and in closing us down they are also losing around £300,000 a year in rent.”

Mr Scott said that he was “bewildered” by the decision but had been told by the charity that it is willing to accept a “dark summer” in which there were no boats operated on the lakes.

The refusal to allow a short extension for “reasons only known to the Royal

Parks” will in the coming days be the subject of an application for a judicial review.

The company will argue that an interim arrangement should be put in place to allow the boats to continue operating while a competitive tender process for the contract is completed.

It is understood that the tender process, which should have begun at the beginning of the year to ensure continuity, was delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The company, which has had a dispute with the parks over who owns a boating house that Mr Scott says he erected in Greenwich Park, was forced to cease trading on Nov 20.

The jobs of the 35 people employed across the two parks are now at risk.

The company has been inundated with emails pleading it to open so people could exercise in a socially distanced way and a petition started over the weekend gathered around 70 signatures in an hour.

“At the boathouse we have an old sticker in the window which says ‘I have been Serpentining’ and every day I get asked if people can buy one like it,” Mr Scott said. “In my opinion and experience it is one of the most iconic boating lakes in the world and to have it closed so suddenly is so sad.”

Mr Scott added that “there was a brief suggestion in a letter that they wanted to look at alternative uses for the Serpentine”.

The charity, which was formed in 2017 to take over the management of London’s eight royal parks from the Government, refused to comment on whether they would be changing the usage of the lake or whether there would be boating this summer.

A spokesperson for the Royal Parks said: “Our contract with Bluebird Boats Ltd came to an end on 10 November 2020 and they no longer have permission to continue trading in any of the Royal parks.

“We are currently reviewing future opportunities for the Serpentine and will be issuing tenders in due course. In the meantime, boating in all of our parks is now closed for the winter.”