Assessment of Boatyard Facilities on the River Thames - Mayor of ...

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Freight
3.6 The two major types <strong>of</strong> freight cargos that operate to the wharves in Greater
London are waste and minerals. Cory Environmental manages three river served
transfer stations and serves a fourth in the London Borough <strong>of</strong> Tower Hamlets. The
operation employs 200 people and operates a fleet <strong>of</strong> six purpose built tugs and 47
container barges, transporting over 600,000 tonnes <strong>of</strong> waste by river each year for
disposal at the company’s Mucking site. Cory Environmental is considering
opportunities to expand its towage operation in relation to the proposed Energy from
Waste Power Station at Belvedere and the opportunities to use River wharves for the
collection and transport <strong>of</strong> recyclables. Cory Environmental has a long established
boatyard facility at the Cory Barge Works, Charlton that includes three covered dry
dock slipways, grids and engineering workshops. Cory’s informed the 2000 study
that some <strong>of</strong> their new tugs were too large to fit on the slipways. Partly as a result
there was spare capacity on the slipways that was used to maintain vessels operated
by the PLA, passenger boat operators and private owners. Cory is currently working
on proposals to rebuild the dry dock slipways so that they can accommodate larger
vessels. Cory has declined to share the proposals with this study because it
considers that they are not sufficiently advanced. A possible consequence <strong>of</strong>
improvements would be the loss <strong>of</strong> the existing facilities that are used currently by
passenger boat operators.
3.7 Mineral operators land crushed rock and dredged aggregates at wharves in
Greater London using a variety <strong>of</strong> coasters and dredgers. These are generally
maintained at home ports and there are no facilities to maintain these craft in Greater
London. Typical shipyards for maintaining these vessels include Acorn Shipyard Ltd.,
Rochester that has fought to stay in existence in the face <strong>of</strong> the proposals for the
residential-led Rochester Riverside scheme by Medway Council / SEEDA. The
shipyard is now incorporated into a revised scheme. Acorn Shipyard is also used to
maintain some Thames piers and passenger vessels.
Passenger Boat Operators
3.8 The public passenger fleet on the tidal Thames numbers approximately 140
vessels. It comprises a mixture <strong>of</strong> sightseeing / party boats and boats operating
scheduled passenger boat services such as Thames Clippers and Thames Executive
Charters. There are broadly two types <strong>of</strong> vessels. Firstly there are the single hulled
vessels that generally have the configuration <strong>of</strong> a traditional Thames river steamer.
Many upriver commercial passenger boats on the services from Westminster to
Hampton Court have old hulls that have been modernised and re-engined over the
year. These hulls have been purpose designed to overcome the navigation problems
between Kew and Richmond at low water. These navigation difficulties coupled with
the available air height under bridges at high tide restrict the overall dimensions <strong>of</strong>
vessels that can be used on upriver services. In general these vessels are <strong>of</strong> a size
and shape that are appropriate for the existing slipways and floating dry docks.
3.9 Secondly there are vessels based on a catamaran configuration. Some <strong>of</strong>
these such as the Thames Clippers are capable <strong>of</strong> high speed operation others such
as the Bateaux boats use the catamaran format to maximise the dining area for its
leisure services. Older slipways and some floating dry docks cannot accommodate
these wider twin hulled vessels. Operators <strong>of</strong> the larger catamarans use Thames Dry
Docking Services Ltd. and boatyards down river <strong>of</strong> London at locations such as
Denton Ship Repairers (Denton Slipway), Gravesend, the former A & P dry dock
Ramsgate and Acorn Shipyard Rochester. However, there is a reluctance to use
boatyards that require a coastal voyage because vessels can sustain damage (as
happened to the Dixie Queen recently) or become storm bound.
<strong>Assessment</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Boatyard</strong> <strong>Facilities</strong> on the River Thames Adams Hendry Consulting Ltd - April 2007