The project, developed by the Canal & River Trust's North East Waterway Partnership, has seen more visitor moorings created and some key boater services added making it easier for boaters to visit the city and enjoy its shops, restaurants and attractions. It's a timely boost for those boaters wanting to visit the city's popular Waterfront Festival taking place on 27 and 28 June.
Working with the Trust's estates team as well as landowners within the city, the Partnership has put together a range of measures to improve the provision of moorings throughout the city.
As part of the measures four brand new moorings have been created on the Aire & Calder Navigation and one mooring has had its stay time increased:
- Knostrop Lock top (5 days)
- Leeds services pontoon (72 hours)
- Leeds Lock tail (72 hours)
- Brewery Wharf (48 hours)
- Fearns Wharf (72 hours)
An agreement has also been reached with the owner of moorings in Granary Wharf to make the moorings there free-of-charge and the Trust hopes to work with other landowners in the city to increase the number of berths for visiting boats.
As part of the improvements a water point above Office Lock has also been brought back into use and the Partnership hopes to encourage provision of a pump out facility below Office Lock.
The project has been initiated by the Partnership's Visitor Moorings subgroup which includes representatives of the Inland Waterway Association, the National Association of Boat Owners and Canal Connections. The Partnership also has aspirations for more visitor moorings on the Aire & Calder as well as on the Leeds Liverpool Canal between River Lock near Leeds Station and Oddy Lock to the west of the city.
Great news for boaters
David Lowe, from the Trust's North East waterway partnership, said; “This is great news for boaters wanting to visit Leeds but also for the city itself – particularly with the Leeds Waterfront Festival just around the corner. As a partnership we recognised that there was a need for more provision of moorings within the city and so we made it one of our priorities.
“Leeds has so much to offer visiting boaters and we're delighted that they now have significantly more choice of where to stay and can use a number of key facilities. We look forward to seeing more boaters visit the city and enjoying all of its attractions and that can only be a good thing for local businesses.”
The North East Waterway Partnership is a group of leading local figures, formed when the Trust was created in July 2012, to work together for the benefit of the people and businesses that use and enjoy the region's canal network.
