Overnight mooring on the Thames can be often difficult to find an expensive. For example when mooring on council owned temporary mooring at Henley, it cost £9.00 per day and during the regatta week this creeps up to £40-50 per day dependant on which day of the regatta week you decide to stay on. By quick calculation the cost of mooring at Henley would cost about £40,000 for a year. Let’s consider that this is equivalent to paying council tax and pose the question what is council tax and what is it used for?
Council Tax is a local tax that is used to fund services such as schools, rubbish collection, social services, and police and fire services. You may hear it called the Poll Tax or Community Charge, although these were earlier forms of local taxation.
In the case of the moorings at Henley there are four waste paper bins and a couple of park benches. What do boaters get for their mooring fees at Henley? The answer is bugger all! If you want to avoid paying these fees just anchor up three feet off the bank and the council employee of the peak-capped brigade will not be able to annoy you first thing in the morning when he comes tapping on your windscreen and demanding payment. To rub ointment unto his little beady eyes go for the jugular and tell him to go and read assuming he can read and speak English, the Environment Agency’s publication “ A users guide to the River Thames” ( Edition 5/2006 p.22 paragraph 1) which states that “in general boats have a right to anchor in the Thames for up to 24 hours in any one place provided no obstruction is caused to the navigation channel, and he can stick that in his pipe and smoke it.
The Vale of the White Horse Council on the other hand positively encourages boaters. A Welcome to Abingdon sign states “These moorings are provided for your enjoyment free of charge” with “a maximum stay of 5 consecutive days”
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