BBC News
BbcAlain Gough-Colaya saw on the barge he built by living in the midlands, before moving to London to play a role of community nurse in mental health in Hackney.
It is what is known as a continuous cruiser, a boat stroller which has no permanent mooring and moves between temporary moorings from top to bottom of the Lea river – and beyond – every 14 days.
To access them, as well as services such as garbage cans and places to pump waste, it pays about £ 1,600 per year at the Canal and River Trust (CRT).
“We pay a license that is not really the equivalent of rent, it is more the equivalent of the council tax,” explains Alain. “This license pays for all our installations and our ability to be on water.”
But if he can continue this lifestyle may depend on the result of an examination of the license of boats which started in January and is carried out by an independent commission.
The legislation concerning the use of waterways has not been updated from the British Waterways Act 1995, and the authority that manages them believes that a new look is necessary.
“The number of boats has doubled in the past 30 years, and we have seen more people choose to live on the waterways, which has really given the canals to life,” said Matthew Symonds, of the CRT.
“But it also brings challenges in the way you manage a large number of boats in confined spaces, and how you make sure it’s just for everyone.”
The inhabitants of boats fear that the new legislation could affect continuous cruisers in particular, which makes them pressure to find a much more expensive and elusive permanent mooring.
Alain says that he could completely force the itinerant boaters like him off the waterways, which means that he should probably leave the capital and his nurse position.
“I just couldn’t do this job, I just couldn’t live in London. I should be elsewhere.”
The part -time student and caregiver SJ is from southern London and also has her own boat on the Lea river, which she currently renovates, due to the cost of renting a house.
“About three or four years ago, I realized that I could no longer allow myself to live in London,” she said. “And that’s where I grew up. And it’s not really fair.”
As a continuous cruiser, SJ is also concerned about what the review will mean for her and her lifestyle. She says she could not afford to pay permanent mooring, even if she could find one.
The National Bargee Travelers Association, which represents residents of itinerant boats, believes that changes in the legislation could end the lifestyle of continuous cruiser and see thousands of homeless boaters.
He told the BBC: “The most likely result of an abandonment of the 1995 British Waterways Act will, in reality, be a highly conflictual, unpleasant and incredibly costly process by which boaters without other place to refuse to leave their Houses, while the CRT spends millions of legal battles and application to put them in the streets. “
The CRT is clear that the licenses and costs of boaters are set until 2028, so no modification is expected before that.
He indicates that he plans to engage with boaters and other stakeholders in the coming months.
The Commission report on its conclusions will be submitted to the CRT board of directors in September before a decision was made on how to proceed.