Waterways

Council freehold owner of riverbed and foreshore - statutory local port authority having navigational control and maintenance obligations charging for mooring licences - council not entitled to charge mooring fees as land ownerIpswich Borough Council v Moore and another: ChD (Lloyd J): 22 June 2000

The council, as successor of a corporation which since 1519 had owned the freehold title to the riverbed and foreshore of the River Orwell, Ipswich, brought actions against the defendants for their refusal to take up licences on payment of fees for moorings.

At the hearing of Part 24 applications for a declaratory judgment the issue was whether the council, as freehold owner, had power to demand the vessel users to obtain its permission on payment of fees for moorings or to withhold its permission when the users had already obtained licences from the local port authority established by a local Act in 1805 who since 1877 had power to charge the users.Christopher Stoner (instructed by Eversheds, Norwich ) for the council.

John McDonnell QC and Edward Irving (instructed by Mark Auden Young, Dovercourt) for the first defendant.

The second defendant in person.Held, giving judgment for the defendants, that since the regulation of the port was in the hands of the local port authority, which had power to charge for the facilities including moorings, while by 1877 the customary dues payable to the council had been abolished, it would be inconsistent with the statutory authority conferred on the port authority if the council were to have a separate power to grant or withhold consent to the laying of moorings generally or to their use; and that the port authority's statutory power overrode the council's rights to charge as the owner of the soil.