Jump to content

Boaters able to pre-book selected moorings in London through web portal


Ray T

Featured Posts

16 December 2016

 

BOATERS ABLE TO PRE-BOOK SELECTED MOORINGS IN LONDON

 

Boaters who want to have the certainty of a guaranteed place to moor in central London are now able to pre-book a spot in Rembrandt Gardens, Little Venice, through the Canal & River Trust’s licensing web portal.

 

Research over summer showed that the perception of having trouble finding moorings was putting people off visiting the capital and the Trust is trialling these paid for pre-bookable short-stay mooring spots in response. If the trial is successful the Trust will investigate introducing pre-bookable moorings at suitable places across London’s waterways, while ensuring that use is balanced with existing visitor and casual towpath moorings, and longer-term moorings.

 

Matthew Symonds, boating strategy & engagement manager at Canal & River Trust, said: “The pre-bookable moorings at Little Venice will provide a guaranteed place for boaters to pull up in one of the most picturesque parts of London, close to the heart of the city and with great transport links. As anyone who has boated in central London recently will tell you, it can get very busy, and it’s more important than ever that we manage the finite space fairly to meet the needs of a wide range of boaters. This is an added extra service for boaters who want the security of arriving in the capital and knowing they’ll have a space.”

 

Boaters can reserve pre-bookable moorings by visiting www.canalrivertrust.org.uk/bookablemooringslondon

 

The moorings will cost £10 per night and can be booked for up to seven nights in a single visit.

 

The Trust carried out the survey between Friday 30 June and Friday 26 August 2016. The Trust has been carrying out further engagement work including surveys of boaters and other stakeholders in London to help inform the wider London mooring strategy.

 

ENDS

 

For further media requests please contact:

Fran Read, national press officer, Canal & River Trust

m 07796 610 427 e fran.read@canalrivertrust.org.uk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was under the impression that there were already two bookable moorings at rembrandt gardens & that they were free once you booked your slot ?

So this development means that they have gone and are now to be paid for unless ive got things wrong . ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They have been bookable by phone but now available on line. You can book on-line passage through things like the Liverpool link and Standegde tunnel which is handy.

The moorings were previously bookable by emsil, as we did, and they were free. So this isnt really an improved service at all.

 

Steve

Link to comment
Share on other sites

During the summer we tried to book a berth for two or three nights. Not surpringly, they were already fully booked. We did manage to get into Paddington Basin and stayed for three nights. We had a walk along to Rembrandt Gardens each day (as you do) and guess what? There were no boats at all on either of the moorings on each of the three days. A few days later after we had left, I did email CRT thinking they had screwed up the booking system. I got a reply to the effect that their booking system was correct, but they couldn't force boats to turn up or to stay for their full booked time (I don't know what the maximum time is/was). I just got the feeling from the tone of the email that this was a common occurrence. Perhaps the £10 charge is CRT's way of tightening this up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

During the summer we tried to book a berth for two or three nights. Not surpringly, they were already fully booked. We did manage to get into Paddington Basin and stayed for three nights. We had a walk along to Rembrandt Gardens each day (as you do) and guess what? There were no boats at all on either of the moorings on each of the three days. A few days later after we had left, I did email CRT thinking they had screwed up the booking system. I got a reply to the effect that their booking system was correct, but they couldn't force boats to turn up or to stay for their full booked time (I don't know what the maximum time is/was). I just got the feeling from the tone of the email that this was a common occurrence. Perhaps the £10 charge is CRT's way of tightening this up.

Also as the moorings are now bookable by phone, presumably to allow those without internet access to book, someone has to be paid to answer the phone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

During the summer we tried to book a berth for two or three nights. Not surpringly, they were already fully booked. We did manage to get into Paddington Basin and stayed for three nights. We had a walk along to Rembrandt Gardens each day (as you do) and guess what? There were no boats at all on either of the moorings on each of the three days. A few days later after we had left, I did email CRT thinking they had screwed up the booking system. I got a reply to the effect that their booking system was correct, but they couldn't force boats to turn up or to stay for their full booked time (I don't know what the maximum time is/was). I just got the feeling from the tone of the email that this was a common occurrence. Perhaps the £10 charge is CRT's way of tightening this up.

One problem with the email system was that the blocks of dates were fixed - two per week IIRC. I wanted to be able to moor there Feb this year for a meeting in London. To get the dates I wanted I had to book slightly more. I think we arrived a day earlier than needed but had to leave after six days leaving one day empty. I manged to secure the booking by submitting the email at one minutes into New year's Day (I had earlier had an attempt to book for the previous October rejected on the grounds that it was just a few hours too early and by the time they got around to telling me to send it in again, some days later, all the slots were taken.

 

Sadly, with our new boat not ready until March I cannot try the new system for next Feb but look forward to 2018 to try again with whatever system is then in place.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The moorings were previously bookable by emsil, as we did, and they were free. So this isnt really an improved service at all.

 

Steve

Well it is in that you can now see which days are booked and which are so you can make your arrangements accordingly. Under the old system yiu emailed with your request, not knowing whether those days were actually available.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What happens if you book yourself a mooring then you arrive early in the evening and there are boats already on it? Especially if either they are unoccupied or else their owners just tell you to *** off?

Ha! Tell me about this. Turned up at my own home mooring to the same reception couple of weeks ago. Came down to threats of cut ropes and vandalism. If you forgive the expression 'possession is 9/10ths of the law'. I'm polite and not up for a scrap so move on....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Surely, being in London CRT would expect boats to triple breast, hence why people say they have booked yet berths are still shown as available?

 

It's hard and iirc not allowable to double moor there as trip boats need to get round there.

 

The mooring is near a CaRT office who will monitor that area. I popped off the same mooring last time I booked there for 2 hours; came back and a boat (a trip boat funny enough) was there who moved immediately upon being told by me that it was a prebookable mooring.

Edited by mark99
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.