Monica Harding MP
Action on Overstay Boats
As soon as she was elected, Monica Harding MP pushed the new Government and Secretary of State for the Environment and the...
3 Sep 2025
Tackling Overstay Boats
As soon as she was elected, Monica Harding MP pushed the new Government and Secretary of State for the Environment and the Environment Agency to take action on the wrecked, sunken, abandoned, and overstay boats on the Thames and Esher and Walton’s riverbanks.
These boats had been allowed to proliferate over years, rising from a handful to almost 200 at present, and making the riverbank and parts of the towpath inaccessible to residents.
As the new MP, in July 2024 Monica wrote to Steve Reed, the Secretary of State for the Environment, as well as the EA’s CEO, about the boats and, over the subsequent months, regularly met and corresponded with senior EA officials.
Following her work, that September, two of the biggest boats were removed, and hundreds of enforcement notices served – but then progress stalled. Unhappy with the Agency’s slow progress and its consistent overpromising and underdelivering, Monica took the cause directly to Parliament, securing a debate on the boats and using her speech to lay the problem before the Minister.
Monica met with the EA’s top team three times during the summer. The EA’s Executive Director for Local Operations expressed regret for previous inaction and promised a “reset”; appointed a new Deputy Director to lead on tackling the boats; established an internal task force with representatives from all departments, specifically to better deal with this issue.
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Petition: tackle overstay boats along the River Thames
Back my campaign to tackle overstay boats illegally moored along the River Thames.