An application for a dock for river boat tours on the Medway has been approved.
The application by Medway Council was to create a dock at Limehouse Wharf, just east of Rochester.
Medway Council’s plan for river boat dock at Limehouse Wharf in Rochester given approval
I am based away from the Lower Thames and Medway now but my love for ‘my’ river remains unchanged. I wrote about a need for this sort of facility below the bridges on the Rochester side of the river nearly two decades ago when the wharf side industries and buildings were being removed and the historic panorama of Rochester could once again be seen from Limehouse Reach.
Yes, housing developments have since been rising across that brown-field site, but a river access remained elusive.
Twenty to thirty years ago we regularly used a little floating pontoon owned by the river authority a little upstream of Chatham Intra – it was an access point found by chance with an unlocked gate! Then it became barred…
This has been written about in one or two of my books, however, I now applaud this development. But, and it is a big but, many cruisers, especially those from Holland can often be seen in the reach and the next looking for a stop-over to access the historic part of Rochester. They don not necesarily want to go into Chatham Marina. Sadly, there isn’t anywhere (except for a brief interlude in Chatham Bight at Sun Pier).
What is needed along with access for river-boats is a stop-over for private yachts, similar to that provided at Harwich by the harbour authority at Half Penny Pier. Stays are time limited. Yes a charge is made – that is fair enough.
Come on Medway, think further out of the box and be a little more enlightened.