They\u2019ve been a waterway fixture for decades, a perpetual-motion village of eccentric boaters, drawn by the lifestyle or driven to it by Britain\u2019s soaring housing costs.<\/p>\n
But now, Poulton and others say their life afloat is under threat.<\/p>\n
In November, the Canal and River Trust (CRT), the non-profit organisation charged with managing 3220km of historic canals and rivers in England and Wales, will announce an overhaul of regulations and licensing fees that itinerant boaters fear could force them off the water.<\/p>\n
Tensions have been rising between the managers of Britain\u2019s canals, others who use them, and the nomadic narrowboaters, revered by some as bohemian travellers and disdained by others as maritime squatters.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s this feeling that we\u2019re getting away with something, that we\u2019ve found a loophole to live cheap,\u201d said Poulton, who spends about half of her time in the posh waterways of central London. <\/p>\n
\u201cYes, some people are out here because they can\u2019t afford anything else, but many of us are out here because we love it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jenny Poulton, 33, makes a raised garden bed on the top of her boat in Roydon. Photo \/ Jos\u00e9 Sarmento Matos, for The Washington Post<\/p>\n
Among the changes believed to be under consideration: higher licence fees, permit systems to limit the number of continuous cruisers in some areas and rules that would require them to travel more kilometres each year, potentially splitting them from shoreside jobs and schools where children are enrolled.<\/p>\n
CRT said it was too early to speculate on specific recommendations that will emerge from the independent commission that is reviewing the rules. <\/p>\n
An update of regulations and enforcement powers is desperately needed, the agency said, to meet rising demand for space throughout the 200-year-old canal network, particularly in and around London.<\/p>\n
There are more than 8500 nomads on the water, making up a quarter of all boats. In London, itinerant boats now outnumber by two to one those who pay thousands of pounds a year for fixed mooring spots.<\/p>\n
The total number of licensed boats – including commercial vessels, residential boats with permanent private moorings and continuous cruisers – climbed 15% in the past decade, and the number of continuous cruisers more than doubled, according to CRT figures.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you have a finite amount of canal space you can have contentions among the users,\u201d said Matthew Symonds, the head of CRT boating programmes. \u201cThe growth has been significant in some areas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other recreational boaters, those who keep their boats in marinas or private moorings but cruise the network, say nomads hog limited mooring spaces and that some flout the rule to move every fortnight. Waterfront landowners and developers bemoan dilapidated boats and, at times, unfriendly boaters.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had more problems with it since Covid and the cost-of-living crisis,\u201d said Ian Burrows, a local government official who oversaw the recent removal of dozens of boats that had colonised a stretch of the Thames in front of Hampton Court Palace.<\/p>\n
Andrew Hamilton, a former lockkeeper on the Thames, said asking liveaboards to move along was a constant chore.<\/p>\n
Boats line Regent’s Canal in front of Broadway Market in the Hackney district of London. Photo \/ Jos\u00e9 Sarmento Matos, for The Washington Post<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people would just stay,\u201d Hamilton said. \u201cThe moorings would be blocked by people, some of whom were destitute and some of whom were simply bloody-minded.\u201d<\/p>\n
Continuous cruisers say the overcrowding complaints are overblown, and that boaters should expect London\u2019s waterways to be as crowded as its streets are for cars, and subways are for passengers.<\/p>\n
The cruisers have their own complaints about CRT\u2019s management of the waterways, including a lack of affordable mooring space, inadequate or inoperable sewage pump-out stations, and riverbanks in need of dredging.<\/p>\n
Nomads see themselves as a valid constituency, albeit one without fixed addresses. In being targeted, many say, snobbery is afoot. Or afloat.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s always a bit of a conflict between scruffy boats and shiny boats,\u201d Alain Gough-Olaya, 39, a psychiatric nurse, said aboard his not-so-shiny narrowboat on the edge of London\u2019s Islington neighbourhood, a cat winding between his legs in a cabin lined with books and cooking pots. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt often seems the CRT is saying you can\u2019t be on the water so much because you\u2019re the wrong sort of person.\u201d<\/p>\n
CRT is not trying to rid the canals of nomadic boaters, Symonds said. He agrees with those who credit a resurgence of liveaboards in the 1960s with bringing life back to canals that had become bleakly moribund after cargo transport disappeared earlier in the century.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe love having boats of all sorts on the canals,\u201d he said. \u201cWe just have to manage the network fairly for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Only a minority of itinerant boaters violate the rules, Symonds acknowledged, but all add demand on the locks, pump-out stations and other canal infrastructure. <\/p>\n
Last year, CRT began imposing a 10% surcharge on cruisers over the yearly licence fee all boaters pay. It will rise to 25% by 2028.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just a matter of how much you\u2019re on the water,\u201d Symonds said. \u201cContinuous cruisers are always on the water.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many boaters say any cost increase puts them closer to a tipping point.<\/p>\n
Jojo Case, 37, bought a blue narrowboat last year for about US$36,000. Photo \/ Jos\u00e9 Sarmento Matos, for The Washington Post<\/p>\n
\u201cThe price thing is really scary for me,\u201d said JoJo Case, 37, a narrowboater tied up along London\u2019s Regent\u2019s Canal.<\/p>\n
After years of rented rooms and friends\u2019 couches, Case bought a blue 15m narrowboat last year for about US$36,000, by taking out a bank loan and maxing out credit cards. It\u2019s the first property of her own.<\/p>\n
\u201cOwning a house was never going to be my story,\u201d Case said, petting her cat as joggers huffed by on the canal path. \u201cIt\u2019s important to have alternative lifestyles when rent payments are so high.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the changes she worries most about are rules that could move her out of reach of the north London studio where she earns a modest living selling textile art.<\/p>\n
The law states that boaters without home moorings must move every two weeks but is vague on how far. At present, Case shifts spots twice a month within the capital\u2019s roughly 160km of CRT canals, often having to moor two or three abreast with other boats doing the same thing.<\/p>\n
The CRT contends that such shuffling within one general area violates the spirit of the law, which calls for boats to be used \u201cbona fide for navigation\u201d. <\/p>\n
Currently, the trust applies a loose standard of moving at least 32km a year. The new rules could increase that distance or stipulate that moorings must be more spread out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d probably have to leave London entirely,\u201d Case said.<\/p>\n
For Marcus Trower, a former plumber, life aboard the condemned 12m narrowboat he bought and restored 15 years ago is an upgrade from squatting in abandoned industrial buildings. It\u2019s also part of a rich tradition he is fighting for as co-chair of the National Bargee Travellers Association, an advocacy group.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t find the British narrowboat anywhere else in the world, and we\u2019re continuing a history that existed for 200 years,\u201d Trower said from his spot on the River Kennet near Reading. <\/p>\n
He is home-schooling his 8-year-old son aboard, and getting ready to head towards London, two weeks at a time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve been making it harder and harder on us,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we\u2019re still here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor\u2019s Picks<\/b><\/a>, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week\u2019s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium <\/b>here<\/b><\/a>.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They\u2019ve been a waterway fixture for decades, a perpetual-motion village of eccentric boaters, drawn by the lifestyle or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,129687,134341,134342,134343,393,776,4884,3714,134345,1429,44234,9641,1144,3577,13694,134346,11432,712,134344,64704,17289,16,28360,15,1764,13690,9985],"class_list":{"0":"post-387628","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-britains","12":"tag-canalboat","13":"tag-continuous","14":"tag-cruisers","15":"tag-england","16":"tag-fear","17":"tag-great-britain","18":"tag-house","19":"tag-jenny","20":"tag-life","21":"tag-minutes","22":"tag-new","23":"tag-northern-ireland","24":"tag-of","25":"tag-only","26":"tag-poulton","27":"tag-rules","28":"tag-scotland","29":"tag-sink","30":"tag-takes","31":"tag-their","32":"tag-uk","33":"tag-under","34":"tag-united-kingdom","35":"tag-wales","36":"tag-way","37":"tag-will"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115124911826241711","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}