In a victory for the Bargee Traveller community, Hackney Council has decided not to apply its proposed Smoke Control Order to moored boats. Following representations from the NBTA and its members in the Council’s consultation in 2024, the Council decided not to apply the controls to boats.
A key reason was “greater recognition of the different circumstances that apply to boaters who don’t have access to the same choices for heating as those living on land”. Concerns about how the controls would financially impact boaters and our ability to heat our homes, and concerns about how the controls would be enforced, also played a part.
This is an extract from Hackney Council’s email of 29th July 2025 informing NBTA of the outcome:
“I am writing further to the public engagement process carried out on proposals to introduce a new Smoke Control Order within the London Borough of Hackney.
Following the end of the engagement period, we considered all of the objections we received. Thank you for taking the time to respond and I would like to assure you that your comments were taken into consideration during the decision making process.
On 19th May 2025, Hackney’s Cabinet approved a new Smoke Control Order which will apply boroughwide. This effectively consolidates all of the previous historic Smoke Control Orders into a single boroughwide Order. The date when this will come into effect will be 1st December 2025.
The new Smoke Control Order does NOT apply to the waterways within the borough. We listened to the objections that were raised and we recognise that more time and support is needed before extending the controls to cover the waterways. Points were raised by both those living aboard boats and those living on land. The main points raised during the engagement are summarised below.
– concerns about how the controls would financially impact boaters and their ability to heat their homes;
– requests for more information about the air quality benefits that might be secured by extending the smoke controls;
– greater recognition of the different circumstances that apply to boaters who don’t have access to the same choices for heating as those living on land;
– concerns about how the controls would be enforced.
Hackney is partnering with other London boroughs on a project to engage liveaboard boaters to find out more about current heating methods and the challenges faced in transitioning to cleaner fuels. Through this partnership, and by communicating with DEFRA, a coordinated approach to enforcement can be agreed which focuses on securing compliance through education rather than issuing fines. In addition, Hackney will be seeking sources of funding to enable us to provide a degree of financial support to those who would be affected by the extension of smoke controls. It is expected that a further engagement process will take place in the future once progress has been made with gathering information and securing funding.
We note your comments about the time allowed for the engagement. The process for designating a new Smoke Control Order is set out under Part III and Schedule 1 of the Clean Air Act 1993. The Environment Act 2021 inserted amendments to the former Act which gave powers to local authorities to extend the smoke controls to include moored vessels. The process for a Smoke Control Order coming into operation, however, remains largely unchanged.
Please also note that the engagement followed a Cabinet decision on February 26, 2024. The Cabinet paper set out the proposals and the reasons for proceeding with this course of action. An Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) was carried out for the proposals and was submitted with the papers to Cabinet. These papers are publicly available. Although a separate welfare assessment was not carried out, Hackney considers low income within its EIAs and, therefore, the potential financial impacts on itinerant boat dwellers was covered within the EIA.
See also
https://bargee-traveller.org.uk/defra-guidance-on-applying-smoke-control-areas-to-boats/