Hundreds of boat owners who moor their boats in Bristol’s Floating Harbour are preparing to mount a legal challenge against the city council’s decision to increase fees and charges.
Three organisations, the Bristol Boaters Community Association, the Bristol Cruising Club and Cabot Cruising Club - which represent hundreds of boat owners in the docks - have engaged a lawyer and are more than halfway towards a £10,000 fundraising target to begin legal proceedings.
They have a deadline of April 23 to issue a claim for a judicial review in the High Court, which will halt the planned rises to a range of changes to mooring fees and charges, being introduced by Bristol City Council.
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The boat owners say the fee hike has been brought in without the proper level of consultation just three months’ notice for some increases of more than 150 per cent, which the boat owners claim is ‘pushing many stakeholders into financial hardship’.
Bristol City Council’s cabinet approved the changes earlier this year, despite a huge campaign from boat owners, who packed City Hall’s council chamber to protest about the rises.
Now, fundraising campaign has little more than three weeks to raise another £5,000 to start proceedings. “Consultation was promised repeatedly over the course of the last five years,” said a spokesperson for the Bristol Boaters Community Association. “We want to hold Bristol City Council to account for making these promises and then subsequently abandoning the process altogether with no warning, giving harbour users just three months' notice before imposing unreasonable new fees upon us. In some cases this represents an increase of over 150 per cent, pushing many stakeholders into financial hardship,” they added.
They say they are undertaking the fundraising because the legal fees to bring the case will be ‘significant’.
“We want BCC to conduct the consultation that was promised. We are holding local government to account and upholding democratic standards in order to protect the rights and interests of citizens. We want to build a new, constructive relationship based on transparency and trust with BCC. We want to help turn the harbour into an inclusive, accessible place which is an asset for the city and which incorporates the interests, needs and ideas of the people who bring life to the harbour; this can only be achieved through meaningful consultation,” they added.
At the time, Bristol City Council defended the decision to raise the various fees and charges for boats and boat owners on the Floating Harbour, with the Mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, saying people living in boats without the correct residential rights were 'abusing the system' - in remarks he later apologised for.
Mr Rees said the amount of money the council has charged has not been increased sufficiently for years, and the fees were only being brought into line with comparable costs in other cities in the UK.
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Marvin Rees said too many people were living on boats in the harbourside when they technically shouldn’t be - they were using and abusing leisure licences which only permit the boat owners to stay overnight on board for 15 days in a year.
And in fact, the Mayor has revealed that out of the scores of people living in houseboats on the water, there are only eight people with permanent resident licences that allow them to live there.
He branded those living in boats without paying council tax or without the right permits as a ‘privileged few’, and said they needed to pay a fair amount to the city coffers. “We have now reviewed fees and benchmarked against other cities and harbour authorities,” the Mayor said. “They are set to rise above RPI for the first time in 20 years and be brought closer to the necessary funding required to run an effective harbour service. Only eight people have permanent moorings in the harbour and so no other boat should be permanently resident.
“Apart from the eight permanent residential permits, all other boats in the harbour are present on leisure licenses. The leisure licence is offered on an annual basis and permits the owners to berth their vessels in the harbour but do not have any right of tenure and under the terms of this licence cannot stay onboard for more than a 15-day period. Anyone on a leisure permit has to register a residential address, and does not pay council tax for the boat.
“Boat users failing to comply with the license system and treating a leisure permit as a residential privilege are abusing the system and damaging the city’s ability to manage the harbour for all, to allow for better usage and to improve the facilities,” he added.
“The harbour is owned by the city for the city. We must ensure it is managed effectively for all, not for a privileged few. As well as being a requirement under legislation, it’s also a moral one at a time when Bristol City Council faces a cost of operating crisis. We continue to protect frontline services, like libraries, children’s centres, and parks, at a time of severe pressure from high inflation, rising demand for services, and continued national austerity,” he said.
