Community Moorings Scotland
You can donate to Community Moorings Scotland direct from this page
Background: The navigation authority, Scottish Canals, pretty much has a monopoly of mooring and boat launching sites on the Forth & Clyde and Union Canals. Community Moorings Scotland has been created to provide another option.
Setting up as a charity was the easy bit; steering a course through the uncharted legal landscape of contracts, trading agreements and wayleaves has consumed vast amounts of time, patience and not a little money, but we are now (four and a half years in) close to signing on the dotted line.
All donations received will help complete this process – allowing us to begin operation from a secure and enduring foundation – and contribute to funding the necessary mooring infrastructure.
Our mission is to create amazing places for boats and people on the waterways of Scotland. We want to see more boats, moving more often, creating a vibrancy that stretches along the canals and inland to local communities.
We are here to tackle two problems:
- The canals are too quiet. Active boats, of all shapes and sizes, are the beating heart of the waterways and they are fundamental to realising the full potential of our navigations for local communities. By creating amazing places for boats – and for people to work, rest and play – we will stimulate boat movements (and boat ownership) and help bring our ancient monuments alive.
- Boaters face an uncertain future on the navigations of Scotland. By offering an alternative to Scottish Canals’ mooring and launching sites, we will bring choice and competition into the marketplace, creating a more resilient future for all types of boater. By offering somewhere to launch boats, alongside moorings which are ‘by boaters, for boaters’, we can actively design a more satisfying experience for everyone, together with greater security of tenure.
Our vision is of busy waterways in Scotland with many exciting locations for boats and people, linked up as a network of stop-off points along the canals. Over the years more and more mooring and launching sites will be established, within a few hours cruising of each other, with the intention of bringing many new enthusiasts to the canals. This initiative will also serve as a vehicle to connect communities with their local heritage and provide a range of training opportunities.
Our aim is that the wider boating community will grow as a result and have a happier and more secure future on the waterways of Scotland. We see the boating community as more empowered to take control of its future on the canals and contribute directly to a more successful canal network. More people will make boats and boating their choice of home or hobby and more visitors will be drawn to the navigations to work, rest and play.
Our values: Community Moorings Scotland will always conduct itself with integrity and abide by the following guiding principles:
- We will be run by the boating community in a democratic manner, regardless of shape or size of craft.
- Our membership will be open to anyone in the canal and wider community and we will not discriminate against any sector of society.
- We will strive to be open, fair and transparent in all our dealings.
- We will reinvest all surpluses in our goals to benefit the canal and wider community.
- We will strive for environmental and financial sustainability in everything we do.
- In as much as is reasonably practicable, we will remain independent of the navigation authority, Scottish Canals.
Please support us ~ your generosity will be appreciated ..
