The proposed changes include:
- Allowing mooring alongside Rembrandt Gardens in the Little Venice Pool, to provide two new moorings
- Investigating the possibility of installing water points in Paddington Basin and changing a 14 day casual mooring to ‘water point waiting only'
- Changing three visitor moorings by Paddington Station to trade moorings
- Allowing double mooring of narrow boats alongside St. Mary's Hospital pontoon, providing four new visitor moorings
These changes would provide more room and facilities for boats visiting this popular area. Creating new trade moorings in front of Paddington Station would bring vitality and vibrancy to the towpath and make the most of the high footfall in the area.
We will be running an informal consultation on the proposals amongst boaters, boating groups and other stakeholders. The consultation will run until Monday 3 March 2014.
Sorwar Ahmed, boater liaison manager at the Canal & River Trust, said: “London is an extremely popular destination for visiting boats, both traders and leisure cruisers alike, not to mention the many people who make their homes on the capital's canals. We need to make sure that we're making the best possible use of the limited space available to meet their different mooring needs. We've been working with the Better Relationships on the Waterways in London Group to address a wide range of boating needs over the past 15 months, and the group has been developing proposals to improve the way visitor moorings are managed. We hope that the proposals in Paddington will work as a good trial over the busy summer cruising season – please get in touch and let us know what you think.”