Gangplank at the ready

Regular users of the bridge across the canal will be familiar with the adjacent waterway, a tributary of the Thames called Castle Mill Stream, on which several boats are moored. What they may not realize is that this has been a site of some controversy and legal entanglement. 

For years, the area between the canal and the railway line that includes Castle Mill Stream and the triangular patch of open land to the south of William Lucy Way was unregistered. It was not clear who owned it, so a number of boats and rafts took the opportunity to moor there for free – some more safely than others.  At times it has been a dumping ground for abandoned and dangerous boats several of which sank, and a hotspot for anti-social behaviour.

The City Council  was concerned about general safety asked Network Rail and the Canal and Rivers Trust to sort out who owns it. This issue was resolved in 2018 and 2019 when Network Rail asserted ownership. The Council then considered this to be ‘undeveloped private railtrack amenity land’ and issued Network Rail with a planning enforcement notice for allowing boats to moor there without planning permission. Faced with the prospect of unlimited fines, Network Rail promptly issued the boaters with eviction notices.

Meanwhile five of the boaters had started organizing. They argued that their homes, like residential boats on the canal, offered a practical demonstration of ‘affordable housing’. They envisaged “a mixture of temporary and permanent moorings, with proper facilities for water, rubbish, and sewerage disposal, and a co-operative, not-for-profit model.” 

They cleaned up the area and formed a company, Castle Mill Stream Moorings, and applied for a ‘Certificate of Lawful Use’ – a sort of restrospective planning permisssion. If the land has been used continuously for residential moorings for ten years then that use has been established. One the five, Steve Watts has lived on Castle Mill Stream for 21 years, three others have been there for six to eight years, and one for three years.

In September, they chalked up a small victory. After an appeal by one of the boaters Elliot Smith, the Planning Inspectorate granted a Lawful Development Certificate for “The mixed use of the land for railway and waterway amenity purposes and the permanent residential mooring of two boats with the associated placement of up to two mooring pins and one gangplank per boat.” 

This has left the City Council lawyers, not to mention Network Rail, pondering their options. Network Rail might be amenable to allowing residential moorings here if the City withdrew its enforcement notice. With goodwill all round there should be some way to navigate through these rather muddy waters and make best use of a distinctive local amenity.

If you would like to delve further into this complex tale, see this previous posting on in Jericho Online, or go to the Council planning website by clicking here and using the reference number 20/02292/CEU