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Not the free water anymore in London
Boat owners accustomed to freely navigating London's narrow canals will have to pay to moor near Olympic sites during the 2012 Games, fuelling fears by some that they are being pushed out by unprecedented security measures.
Boat owners accustomed to freely navigating London's narrow canals will have to pay to moor near Olympic sites during the 2012 Games, fuelling fears by some that they are being pushed out by unprecedented security measures.
London's police will close a handful of boating routes near the Olympic Stadium in Stratford, in the east of the capital, and put in place a controlled zone covering some canals.
British Waterways, which manages the canals, will introduce mooring charges during the July 27-Aug. 12 Olympics and the Paralympics that follow.
"A lot of people on the boats are definitely feeling as if we are being excluded," told Steve Hatch, 59, a retired fireman who lives on a narrow boat while moving around London's canals.
"Whenever you look at any publicity about the Olympics, they show nice pictures of the canals and the stadium itself with boats in the background.
"So they want to use us as a backdrop for what they are projecting for London, but they don't want us to be there as it happens."
