I USED to have a boat on the River Wey: I used to pay annual mooring fees to the boatyard at Godalming, an annual River Wey Licence (to the National Trust), and an annual River Thames Licence. If we took a long trip on to the canal system, I had to pay a Visitor’s Licence for two or three weeks which was almost as much as the annual Wey Licence.

However we often found that we could not stop for the night where we wanted because all the visitor moorings were occupied by so-called “continuous cruisers” who quite clearly had been there for weeks or months. In one particular case a full length boat had set up home across the water point and was guarded by fierce dogs.

The same problem greets hire boaters who have paid a substantial sum for their holiday. Of course many permanent users play by the book and are very helpful but my experiences were very off-putting.

Bryan Simmons

Lower Road

Bratton

Westbury