Failure to move Thames houseboat lands owner in court
A HOUSEBOAT owner has been prosecuted after failing to comply with directions to move his unpowered vessel from Environment Agency owned public moorings on the non-tidal River Thames.
At Staines magistrates’ court, Stephen Crowe, now of London Road, Kingston-uponThames, admitted an offence contrary to Section 84 Thames Conservancy Act 1932 (not complying with the directions of a Harbour Master).
He told the court he had sold the boat in June 2021 and was given a conditional discharge for 12 months, ordered to pay £5000 towards the Environment Agency’s costs and a victim surcharge of £22.
The court heard it had become necessary for the Environment Agency to begin issuing formal enforcement notices in May and June of 2019 directing Crowe to move his vessel Hope IV from an Environment Agency short-stay mooring site on the riverbank at Walton-onThames in Surrey.
His failure to then regularly move the large 85ft unpowered boat led to a further formal enforcement notice being issued in July 2019 directing Crowe to move from another nearby Environment Agency short-stay mooring at Desborough Island in Surrey. The Environment Agency began legal proceedings after a Harbour Master Notice of Directions was not complied with.
Colin Chiverton, environment manager for the River Thames at the Environment Agency, said: “The Environment Agency owns limited sections of riverbank across 144 miles of the non-tidal Thames. The majority of our customers do comply with our mooring conditions, but this is an important enforcement outcome for all river users and local communities.
“We provide and maintain some limited purpose-built short-stay public moorings, to encourage pleasure boating on the river and to enable safe mooring at designated locations. Our public moorings are valuable and available for all boat owners to use but subject to conditions of use, this is to ensure fair access for all pleasure boat owners.”
He added: “We strongly advise all boat owners to give serious consideration to the size and type of vessel and how to comply with landowner mooring requirements before committing to owning and keeping a boat on the river.”