At Last The Base is Secure!

After a year-long battle, The South West Herts Narrowboat Project has at last became the legal owner of the land which has been our base and mooring since 1987. The Land Registry has registered our title to the land behind the old council tip in Hunton Bridge.

When the council decided to sell the waste disposal site and old gravel yard at Hunton Bridge, the Narrowboat base was included in the sale. In order to protect the interests of the charity, the trustees claimed adverse possession of the site, which had been in continuous use for 16 years.

In that time, many volunteers spent countless hours building a solid mooring dock out into the river from a crumbling eight-foot strip of wasteland. They also excavated a turning point so that the seventy-two foot narrowboat could be turned around. Later, a shed, mains water, power and sewerage where added, as well as security fencing, gardens and a barbecue area. More recently, with the participation of the Millennium Volunteers and a grant from Shell, a new storage and training building was added. The base is now an idyllic spot, planted with stunning displays of flowers, at the confluence of the River Gade and the Grand Union Canal opposite Hunton Bridge Bottom Lock.

The trustees of the charity have spent nearly a year attempting to persuade the council to allow the Narrowboat Project to continue on the site, rather than including the land in the sale of the tip. In that time we have gained support from many local councillors and other organisations. However the council officials, despite pressure and warnings from the Land Registry refused to meet with us to discuss a solution to the problem. They agreed at one point to hold a meeting, and a member of the council executive promised our local councillor that they would meet. On another occasion they told the newspaper that a meeting had been held. This was not the case.

It was evident from the start that we had a very strong case, but the delay in reaching a settlement was very distracting for a long period of time and involved a good deal of work for the base sub-committee and from David Marsden of MAB, our solicitor.

Eventually the case was scheduled to go to adjudication under a new system where the decision is made by an adjudicator from the Department for Constitutional Affairs, rather than the Land Registry. We prepared an exhaustive dossier stating our case; this was forwarded to the adjudicator and to HCC who had 28 days to respond. Before the expiry of that period they finally gave in and agreed to concede if we did not press for costs. We responded that we were willing for the case not to go to adjudication but only if they agreed to pay costs.

In the end, the costs we settled for did not completely cover our legal expenses. However for a relatively small sum of money - and a great deal of work - we have gained legal title to the base, and security for the Project.