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 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.

The EA promised that they would begin clearing sunken, wrecked, and abandoned boats at the end of the summer. This work has now begun; an operation commenced yesterday, continued today, and is likely to conclude tomorrow.

Monica said:

For far too long, political apathy and inertia allowed the number of overstay boats in Esher and Walton to rise and rise. My constituents had to put up with inaction from political leaders even as the problem of overstay boats got worse.

Residents, businesses, and community events lost access to the river and the water, even as the boats blighted views including of Hampton Court Palace. Residents became scared even to walk down towpaths due to the alleged antisocial behaviour. There were reports of untreated human waste ending up in the river.

My constituents should not have to put up with this. For more than a year now, I have been relentlessly pushing the Government and Environment Agency to step up and tackle the boats. I am pleased that that this work is paying off and boats are now being removed.

This progress is welcome and shows that sustained hard work and political focus, working together with residents and community groups, can make a real difference.

But this is just one step forward, and I will continue to drive forward action until all sunken and overstay boats without licenses are removed.

Government and politicians must address those problems that people experience in their lives, which they see and feel every single day. Ignoring these does not just create a sense of frustration, it undermines people’s faith in the system.

This Government has spoken about the importance of people’s local communities, so I look forward to meeting with the Minister and EA officials this month to discuss how we make further progress.