Planning proposals, to accommodate narrow pieces of land between existing houseboats in Bembridge Harbour, have been slammed by the Bembridge Houseboat Association.
Speaking on behalf of the Association, their Chairman, Jeremy Gully, said,
“Fire on board a houseboat is every owner’s nightmare.
“Salutary lessons should have been learned in recent years after serious fires on ‘Rinjstroom’ and ‘Zambezi’, yet it appears the Harbour Authority wants to cram nine more boats in between existing ones, seemingly oblivious to the real dangers of fire spread and potential loss of property, or even life.”
Fire service warning
Mr Gully explains that when the fire service attended a fire that totally destroyed the old ‘Zambezi’, close neighbour ‘Bryher II’ had to be hosed down to cool it. The fire service said that if the houseboats were any closer they probably would have lost the battle and been unable to save ‘Bryher II’.
However, the Houseboat Association say the Bemrbridge Harbour Authority’s proposals include putting another boat in that very gap, and some of the proposed new ‘plots’ are in gaps that are even smaller (as illustrated in the photo above).
Ill-thought through proposal
Mr Gully said,
“There may be room for a few more without taking silly risks, but this proposal seems surprisingly ill thought through, and even reckless, particularly coming from a responsible Statutory Body such as a Harbour Authority, we invite them to re-think.”
The limited existing gap between ‘Bryher II’ and ‘Zambezi’
‘Newclose’, one of the houseboats in waiting, having already paid a deposit for a plot
