The cost of mooring boats on Windermere could be about to rise as part of a planned widespread 10 per cent hike in fees on the lake.
The proposal comes amid current inflationary pressures and unprecedent times, South Lakeland District Council said.
The plans are to be discussed by a meeting of SLDC’s lake administration committee at South Lakeland House, Kendal, on Friday.
A report authored by Frankie Flannigan, the council’s operational lead for service delivery, ahead of the meeting says all fees and charges are to rise by 10 per cent where practical.
This would mean, for example, the gross charge for permanently mooring an open-deck yacht moving from £805 to £885.50 for the 2023/24 financial year and the gross charge, per metre, up to a maximum of 14m, of mooring other crafts rise from £145 to £159.50.
Mr Flannigan says in his report that the rise would enable SLDC to meet additional running costs but acknowledges that the council must ‘minimise’ the burden on the taxpayer.
He advises the lake administration committee to approve the charges and to approve Westmorland and Furness Council’s Section 151 officer building the charges into the budget for Westmorland and Furness Council – the unitary authority set to begin operating in April – for the 2023/24 financial year.
The changes would come on top of the rise in fees related to the Lake District National Park Authority’s Windermere boat registration scheme. All power-driven vessels used on Windermere must be registered with the national park authority.
“The charge fee has not increased since 2012, when the current registration scheme and charges started,” says the annual report for lake warden and lake ranger services on Windermere, published ahead of Friday’s meeting.
The rise, which has already taken place, has seen the cost of new registrations move from £20 to £37, the cost of annual renewal move from £15 to £28, and the cost of transferring the registration into a new owner’s name jump from £20 to £37. The £10 cost for a full set of self-adhesive registration numbers has not changed.
