Prince William’s Duchy of Cornwall agrees to help end plague of abandoned boats
Prince William’s Duchy of Cornwall estate has agreed to help remove some of the hundreds of old boats abandoned on rivers and harbours in the West Country.
Villagers have said abandoned sailing boats and motor vessels are littering rivers across Devon and Cornwall, with as many as 100 on the River Dart alone.
The Duchy has agreed to remove a small number of boats on the River Avon, between Aveton Gifford and Bigbury in Devon, after nearby residents voiced concerns.
They said they were worried about the potential impact of pollution on local wildlife and river health because of fuel and oil on board six abandoned vessels.
The Duchy said it would remove six of the dilapidated boats, with a spokesman adding: “The Duchy of Cornwall is working in conjunction with our moorings manager to deal with a small number of abandoned boats on the river Avon. This task is ongoing at the moment.”
The Duchy’s estate covers 131,000 acres of land, with most of its income given to the Duchy of Cornwall.
John Ashton, a wildlife artist who has lived in the area for 40 years, said the number of abandoned boats had been growing over the last decade and was only getting worse.
He said: “Up to about 10 years ago everything was pristine here. There are more wrecks here now than I have ever seen, and I’ve been here for about 40 years.”
Chris Craven, who owns the Creekside Boatyard, on the River Dart, attributed the rising number of abandoned boats to an inability to trace the vessels.
He said: “The main reason for this is that, unlike when you buy a car, there’s not a form of traceability in the boating industry.
“Because of the lack of education in it, and ease of buying a boat, a lot of people find after purchasing that they have bought something which needs a lot of upkeep or they might have bought something which needs a lot of work doing before it can go in the water. There is also a lack of administration behind it.
“They are full of oils etc that end up in the ecosystems – it’s quite a toxic thing, really.”
Mr Craven also compared the cost of disposing of the boat in the UK, at around £400 per tonne, to other European countries, which he said had made getting rid of boats cheaper and easier to recycle.
He said: “A lot of our European neighbours have taken this thing on at district level and been progressive. In the UK, we haven’t embraced this and there isn’t a specific law which says you can’t abandon a boat. We just want to stop this from happening.”
In 2022, a report from the British Ports Association said boat abandonment had “increasingly become an issue in some ports, harbours and marinas”.
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has also previously said that “recreational vessel abandonment is set to become an increasingly large problem”.
