Adequate Provision of Long-term Moorings

British Waterways needs to regulate moorings along the canal and the British Waterways Act 1995 requires that all boats have a home mooring - somewhere a boat can lawfully be left while not being used for cruising. An exception is made for boats that cruise continuously around the waterways network, not staying at the same place for more than 14 days.

Continuous cruising guidelines (20KB PDF).

The majority of long-term moorings available on our waterways are provided by the private sector, ranging from large marinas with extensive facilities to simple end of garden sites. However, British Waterways provides around one fifth of the moorings available and these are mainly simple moorings alongside the edge of the canal. When vacancies arise at these moorings, annual mooring permits are offered for tender under a trial system launched in October 2007, click on moorings tender trial.

Although active itself in the long term moorings business, BW encourages all mooring providers to promote their services free of charge on BW's consumer website, www.waterscape.com. On every page of this site, users can search for mooring providers within a specific geographic area.

For many years British Waterways has stated an intention to encourage more moorings away from the main line of the canal, and over time to limit, and eventually reduce the number of boats moored long-term along the line of the waterways. This stems from customer feedback that long lines of moored boats reduce the enjoyment of cruising. Find out more about this customer feedback (60KB PDF).