Your scheme

This includes technical and design considerations. We also give other guidance from a broader perspective to help you develop your scheme including examples of good practice and references to other main statutory requirements for mooring schemes including links to useful documents and other websites.

The subjects covered in this section are typical of marina development but this is not an exhaustive list and there may be other critical issues relating specifically to your site. We assume that the developer already has a basic understanding of the construction, property development and planning processes. Its emphasis therefore is on aspects specific to marinas.

In order to complete a Network Access Agreement with us, we will assess whether your scheme meets our requirements and also whether we have the capacity to accommodate it on the local waterway.  We will also require the party who will complete it to provide us with evidence that they are able to meet the required financial commitments. If necessary we will require assurances which may include parent company or personal guarantees, a fee deposit in the form of a bond to be held by us against any default or other types of security which are normal in transactions of this importance.

In order to build your scheme you will also require consent from other statutory bodies, the main one being the Local Planning Authority (LPA). To help you more fully understand how the planning process works, you can refer to previous planning applications. As a statutory consultee, we will be asked by the LPA to comment on your scheme.

Factual data

Assessing market demand

Any applicant looking to invest the significant funds required to create a new marina or lay-by development should fully investigate the inland moorings market to assess demand for moorings in their chosen location. Additionally the question of 'need' (not the same as demand) may be required in sites located in Green Belt following a number of appeals against refusal of planning applications. The responsibility for assessing demand and need will rest with the applicant.

We can provide some factual data on request which may assist in the market assessments.

• Licence data - We have national licence data from our annual reports from the last 20 years. This shows the number of long-term licences we've issued and therefore shows general national trends.
• Lockage Report - We publish information on lockage at monitored locks across the network on an annual basis. This can be useful in determining levels of lock usage locally and regionally. You can also read our list of water management FAQs.
• Boaters' Survey - a survey of our boat licence holders is undertaken periodically. This provides useful information on boaters' preferences.
• Existing and planned offline marinas and lay-bys - on request we can provide a map showing pre-2005 marinas/lay-bys (without size data) and marinas since 2005 which are operational or have (or have submitted for) planning consent (this includes approximate size data) within reasonable travelling distance from any proposed marina.

Other factual data

• Vehicular Traffic Generation and Car Parking Requirements Document - this document is useful in assessing traffic impacts and car parking requirements of marinas/lay-bys.