Residential moorings in Warwickshire

[susie]

Hi everyone i'm new to this forum and thought I would post on the offchance I have missed something in my research!

 

I am hoping to move onto a boat in the next few months and have come up against the 'residential mooring' challenge - I have found several marinas where you can effectively live aboard all the time on an unofficial basis but I am trying to find an 'official' mooring because I run my own business and therefore need to be on the voters roll / have a proper residential address etc etc (I don't have the option of using family or friend's addresses).

 

I live in Warwickshire and I think i've tried everywhere now - most don't have residential moorings and those few that do (Saltisford, Copt Heath, one near Southam i've forgotten the name of) have huge waiting lists....

 

Does anyone know of any I might have missed?!

 

I think the nearest BW moorings are Birmingham and they do have one up for tender in Hockley Port at the moment - anyone know what this is like? Also, i've been told that one will be coming up in Gas Street Basin shortly - again anyone got any knowledge?

 

If I do tender and win a mooring in Birmingham, does anyone know how often you actually have to be on the mooring? I ask because I will need to be around Warwick a lot of the time, and returning to Birmingham will involve a lot of locks (i'll be single handed)! Is it OK to just use your residential mooring every now and then?

 

Finally, as my family live in the Burton on Trent area, i'd also consider moorings around there eg Tamworth, Willington - any suggestions?

 

Sorry for all the questions!

 

Susie

[BlueStringPudding]

I know some friends of mine managed to get residential moorings at The Cape in Warwick (near the pub) very recently - just by asking around the other boaters there. There don't appear to be much in the way of facilities, and they're breasted up against another boat (but it's an empty one so no noise!) and they seem happy there. It might be worth going on an extended pub crawl of all the canalside pubs and asking around as they did?

[Sir Nibble]

Hiya Susie,

From the way you describe the nature of your movements, I would say that an ordinary cruising mooring would fit the bill since you will be away from it enough not to be considered residential anyway.

[Odana]

Hockley Port is lovely, though you definitely don't want to be walking round the area outside it at night. But it is very much a residential site and residents have got very grumpy at BW recently (pre-tendering trial) for letting more and more non-resident boats on when there were liveaboards on the waiting list (though of course there's no real way of making you stay on your boat) - mainly because the security of the site is dependant on having enough people actually living there to be an effective neighbourhood watch. There's enough demand for residential moorings that if you bid for one and rarely use it you wouldn't be popular! There are people living at expensive Sherbourne wharf who have been waiting to get into HP for ages. I know it's a free market now but...

 

Gas St is convenient, nice but very public and can be noisy at night, and you're in a 'toastrack' breasted up window-to-window. If you want to be in Warwick much of the time, it's a full day in or out of Birmingham to get even close which is very offputting. Try round Lapworth? There are a couple of new marinas opened/opening round Napton junction - heard a friend-of-a-friend got a residential mooring round there. And there's a small boatyard up near Willington - don't know its name but you can look it up in Nicholsons - where some friends were based and they liked it - worth trying?

 

Final point - if you ask (especially over the phone) about 'residential' moorings you'll likely be told a different story than if you ask about long-term moorings - which sound more like what you might need anyway. If you need a 'proper'address, I think that several organisations can either provide a PO box or maybe rent you a tiny cheap nominal office space/room - also a bloke I knew was on the electoral roll based and had his post delivered to a pub he used to pass fairly regularly - worth asking, anyway!

 

Hope some of that was of use - best of luck

[susie]

Hi thanks for all the advice so far!

 

This topic has probably been done to death many times on this forum, but I really worry about not having a 'proper' residential address. I've worked for a bank most of my career (don't hate me!) and I know how strict these things are now. Even to put my own house on the market I had to provide a recent utility bill and driving licence even though the estate agent was sitting in my kitchen at the time!!!!

 

So it's not so much for receiving post, I know there are ways around that (PO boxes, care of etc), it's more for official things like insuring my car, what address to put on my drivers license, having utility bills (even if just council tax), what to put in the directors register for my company, applying for personal or business banking / phone / supplier facilities etc etc.

 

Am I worrying too much??!!!

 

On the point about having a residential mooring but not actually being there I understand the points made. I guess what i'd be looking to do is be away from the mooring (on the boat) maybe half the time either cruising or moored up near Warwick etc etc. Shame about the large flight of locks between Warwick and Brum otherwise I could go back and forth a bit more!!!! On the other hand it might be easier to just get the train to Warwick every day as the service is pretty good and come back to Brum in the evening.

 

Thanks for the comments on Gas Street and Hockley - from what I can see with Hockley you get more space, quieter moorings, more facilities etc but with Gas Street you have less worries about coming home late at night on your own - quite important to me as a single girlie! See what you mean about the toast rack though!!!!

 

Susie

[Odana]

If you're a girlie living at HP and doing trains you budget to take a lot of taxis or learn to cycle very very fast up the spooky dark lane. Daytime's fine tho. And Winson Green seems to be one of the most expensive places in Britain to insure a car, big metal gates or not... You don't get much in the way of utility bills at a residential mooring other than your BW renewal notice which confuses banks no end. Most residential moorings have cards for electric etc. Depending on how cheeky/persuasive you are, you could always offer one of the places which do offer residential moorings to give you an official address for a small annual fee (no idea if anyone would do this so please don't shout at me anyone for suggesting it). If family live vaguely in the area, registering there would be the most logical way to do it. Otherwise almost everything else (inc the licence/car?)can be registered at a rented office address, surely? Having no fixed abode can be quite liberating once you get over the fear barrier - honest! It's part of the joy of boating, even if it can make life less reliable.

[fun4now]

Hi everyone i'm new to this forum and thought I would post on the offchance I have missed something in my research!

 

I am hoping to move onto a boat in the next few months and have come up against the 'residential mooring' challenge - I have found several marinas where you can effectively live aboard all the time on an unofficial basis but I am trying to find an 'official' mooring because I run my own business and therefore need to be on the voters roll / have a proper residential address etc etc (I don't have the option of using family or friend's addresses).

 

I live in Warwickshire and I think i've tried everywhere now - most don't have residential moorings and those few that do (Saltisford, Copt Heath, one near Southam i've forgotten the name of) have huge waiting lists....

 

Does anyone know of any I might have missed?!

 

I think the nearest BW moorings are Birmingham and they do have one up for tender in Hockley Port at the moment - anyone know what this is like? Also, i've been told that one will be coming up in Gas Street Basin shortly - again anyone got any knowledge?

 

If I do tender and win a mooring in Birmingham, does anyone know how often you actually have to be on the mooring? I ask because I will need to be around Warwick a lot of the time, and returning to Birmingham will involve a lot of locks (i'll be single handed)! Is it OK to just use your residential mooring every now and then?

 

Finally, as my family live in the Burton on Trent area, i'd also consider moorings around there eg Tamworth, Willington - any suggestions?

 

Sorry for all the questions!

 

Susie

 

 

hi,

about 5 miles from willington is Sawley...they have some residentials ...not cheap tho.

Willington is offering res for employees!!...whatever that means!..

there is also Barton near Burton i think.

[Lingy]

Im looking for the same thing lol

 

the one in Burton for a 50ft is £845.00 a quarter this includes eleccy and water etc

 

mm

Edited July 3, 2008 by Lingy

[classicstove]

Hi everyone i'm new to this forum and thought I would post on the offchance I have missed something in my research!

 

I am hoping to move onto a boat in the next few months and have come up against the 'residential mooring' challenge - I have found several marinas where you can effectively live aboard all the time on an unofficial basis but I am trying to find an 'official' mooring because I run my own business and therefore need to be on the voters roll / have a proper residential address etc etc (I don't have the option of using family or friend's addresses).

 

I live in Warwickshire and I think i've tried everywhere now - most don't have residential moorings and those few that do (Saltisford, Copt Heath, one near Southam i've forgotten the name of) have huge waiting lists....

 

Does anyone know of any I might have missed?!

 

I think the nearest BW moorings are Birmingham and they do have one up for tender in Hockley Port at the moment - anyone know what this is like? Also, i've been told that one will be coming up in Gas Street Basin shortly - again anyone got any knowledge?

 

If I do tender and win a mooring in Birmingham, does anyone know how often you actually have to be on the mooring? I ask because I will need to be around Warwick a lot of the time, and returning to Birmingham will involve a lot of locks (i'll be single handed)! Is it OK to just use your residential mooring every now and then?

 

Finally, as my family live in the Burton on Trent area, i'd also consider moorings around there eg Tamworth, Willington - any suggestions?

 

Sorry for all the questions!

 

Susie

 

Susie

 

Only just joined the group so looking through older posts !

 

You will find moorings quite easily but residentials are hard to find iunless you want to be on a waiting list for sometime.

 

It may easier to find a morring that turns a blind eye to liveaboards so you can get onto the baot quite quickly and wait for the elusive residential mooring to appear

 

As for running a business from a boat, unless you have residential status, it is doudful that you will have mail delivered to the place where your boat is moored. Have you considered having an address provided by a mail forwarding company with the mail sent to where you may be working or to be collected at the local Post Office under the Poste Restante arrangement ? If you put 'mail forwarding' into google you will find many companies who provide this service

 

John

 

www.boatmail.co.uk

[canalchris]

Hiya , when you say you have to have pastal adress , would it be sufficient to do the same as me and my wife do ,that is we pay our local postmistress a fee to have all our mail and parcels delivered and signed for if necessary. all our personal info uses this adddress including inland revenue , dvla ,all our vehicles, passports, medical,dental etc. if this is acceptable you could possibly do the same by trying brinklow marina, and ask at brinklow post office,good luck , chris

[Athy]

Wigram's Turn Marina at Napton junction? Napton Narrowboats? Calcutt Boats? All, from memory, within about 15 miles of Warwick.

[Lady Muck]

Hiya Susie,

From the way you describe the nature of your movements, I would say that an ordinary cruising mooring would fit the bill since you will be away from it enough not to be considered residential anyway.

 

Agreed - if you move around alot then it's not worth it. You just need to consider things a bit more carefully.

 

For a landline:

 

Get a 3g dongle for your laptop

Get a skype account, you can buy a landline number which comes through to your computer whenever anyone uses it. If your computer is not switched on, it works like an answerphone and takes messages. I use skype on the boat all the time.

 

Set up a mail collection/forwarding service. There are several companies that do this, just find one that has an office fairly local to where you live, then you don't always have to get things forwarded, you can just pop in and pick them up.

 

If you want to set up a po box, you need to do it now, before you get the boat. I looked into this and they need proof of a residential address, they need utility and council tax bills, in order to set it up.

 

You can still go on the electoral roll - you just need to register for it like travellers do.

[bottle]

All good information but Susie has only posted twice and that was on the 27 May 2008.

 

 

Edited January 19, 2009 by bottle

[carlt]

All good information but Susie has only posted twice and that was on the 27 May 2008.

 

 

New members (Welcome, Canalchris, btw) often rekindle long dead threads, though.

Edited January 19, 2009 by carlt

[bottle]

Agreed he (Canalchris) has been doing a lot of that.

[ditchcrawler]

Agreed he (Canalchris) has been doing a lot of that.

That's because us new members (I still class myself as one) tend to trawl and read lots of old threads and sometimes think we can add something useful.

Brian

[bottle]

and nothing wrong with that, it was that Susie had been addressed personally, I just made an observation.

[bibliotechno]

all good for me - this resurrection has helped on a number of fronts and posed further thoughts on others - yes i try searching the forum, though for convenience i click 'view new posts' when checking in and find little treasures like this thread....(above)

 

the question of moorings confuse me somewhat - i am not yet on a nb - bw were of no help when asking for advice and info regarding my local area (Oxford) - I too am in the difficult position (as I'm sure many of you are) of having to hold the 9-5 down and without gaining a residential mooring find the thought of a liveaboard hard to reconcile with the job. The 'address' details were informative to....

 

signed: a newbie