Last week, the Surrey Advertiser reported that the Environment Agency (EA) has appointed a contractor to help tackle the long-running issue of unauthorised moorings on the River Thames.

This contractor (District Enforcement) will work to apply penalty charges if restrictions on mooring times on EA-owned land, such as the Desborough Cut in Walton, are breached. This should help to prevent the abuse of their moorings, freeing up EA staff to take legal action against boats moored to their land without their consent. District Enforcement should begin their work on 2 November.

I have been pressing the EA to take action to address unauthorised moorings, so this is a welcome step forward. However, it will only help on EA-owned land, meaning that a wider solution is still needed.

In my view, the only such solution available is the introduction of a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO). This was the only proposal in Elmbridge Borough Council (EBC)’s consultation on unauthorised moorings last year that could tackle the problem across the whole riverbank, not just on land controlled by the council.

With this in mind, I will continue to press EBC to introduce a PSPO to tackle this problem once and for all.