A Marlow resident’s campaign to remove the ‘eyesore’ boats slowly sinking into the river near Higginson Park has been met with resistance from official bodies – but he’s not giving up yet.

Bernard Guly, 59, successfully led a clean-up of Marlow Bridge at the beginning of the year after observing it “fall into disrepair” following a “short-sighted” approach to its maintenance by Buckinghamshire Council.

While solid progress has yet to be made on that front, the former PR boss has turned his focus to another issue seemingly being tucked under the carpet by local authorities – a number of abandoned boats clogging up the waterfront by Higginson’s Park, one of the town’s most picturesque tourist draws.

(Image: Bernard Guly)

Bernard said he first noticed the three most prominently placed boats last winter and has reached out to Marlow Town Council and the Environment Agency several times in the months since, to no avail.

“It’s similar to the issues with the bridge in that the bodies involved are just deflecting responsibility. No one wants to grasp the problem and do anything about it.

“There should be a zero-tolerance policy for this kind of thing – when degradation starts to creep in and nothing is done to stop it, it will just grow and grow.

“I think people need to look at Marlow in a wider sense – it’s not just about making the high street look good and attracting new shops. The bridge and the park are key parts of the town, but they’re suffering because of this lack of care.”

(Image: Bernard Guly)

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He said the boats, which were temporarily moved up-river by the Pub in the Park team in May, before slotting back into their original spots, have begun to accumulate sludge and smell of rotten wood and leaking oil.

“What disappoints me is the lack of drive from the powers that be to take any sort of action, even after being told about it several times by different people.

“The boats being abandoned on the river have only been a problem for the past year or so, but there’s a danger in letting things deteriorate around the edges. You begin to lose that vibrancy that makes Marlow such a great place.”

(Image: Bernard Guly)

A spokesperson for the Environment Agency said: “Sunken and abandoned boats are the owners’, then landowners’, responsibility to remove. We intervene if a boat presents a significant hazard, flood-risk or is causing pollution.

“We do not currently consider these boats to be causing such a problem that we would need to intervene, but we will continue to monitor the situation.”

Marlow Town Council has been contacted for comment.