Policy information sourced from The London Plan 2021

SI 15 Water transport

Development proposals should protect and enhance existing passenger transport piers and their capacity. New piers will be supported in line with the Port of London Authority and Transport for London’s Pier Strategy. The necessary provision of moorings, waste and sewage facilities for passenger vessels should be provided.

Existing boatyard sites should be protected and development proposals to increase their capacity or range of services should be supported. Alternative use of a boatyard site should only be accepted if the facilities of the site are re-provided at a site with equivalent or enhanced facilities in Greater London. Proposals for a new strategic-scale boatyard site, at an appropriate site within London, will be supported.

Development proposals to facilitate an increase in the amount of freight transported on London’s waterways should be supported.

The Mayor will keep the network of safeguarded wharves under regular review. Boroughs should protect existing locations and identify new locations for additional waterborne freight. There may be opportunities to consolidate wharves as part of strategic land use change, in particular, within Opportunity Areas; these will need to ensure that the existing and potential capacity and operability of the safeguarded wharves is retained and where possible expanded.

Safeguarded wharves should only be used for waterborne freight-handling use, including consolidation centres. The redevelopment of safeguarded wharves for other land uses should only be accepted if the wharf is no longer viable or capable of being made viable for waterborne freight-handling (see viability testing criteria). Temporary uses should only be allowed where they do not preclude the wharf being reused for waterborne freight-handling uses.

Development proposals which increase the use of safeguarded wharves for waterborne freight transport, especially the reactivation of wharves which are currently not handling freight by water, will be supported.

Development proposals on a safeguarded wharf that include the provision of a water freight use below or alongside another land use, must ensure that the water freight use is secured long-term, that the development is designed so that there are no conflicts of use and that the freight-handling capacity of the wharf is not reduced.

Development proposals adjacent to or opposite safeguarded wharves (including vacant wharves) should be designed to minimise the potential for conflicts of use and disturbance, in line with the Agent of Change principle.

Development proposals close to navigable waterways should maximise water transport for bulk materials during demolition and construction phases.