An abandoned and sinking boat that was an ‘eyesore’ on Marlow’s riverside was removed by the council this week in what a nearby business owner said was ‘a win for everyone’.

Bernard Guly, 59, who led a campaign to clean up the town’s historic bridge earlier this year, told the Free Press in August that he had now set his sights on another “blight” on the local landscape – abandoned and deteriorating boats along Marlow’s stretch of the Thames.

Bernard criticised a “lack of drive from the powers that be” to take action on the “eyesores”, likening it to issues with the bridge that he said were also things that “no one wants to grasp or do anything about”.

And it appears such powers have been receptive to the concerns – with Buckinghamshire Council contracting a local company to remove a final particularly dilapidated boat this week.

Will French, who runs The Little Green Boat Company – a boat hire business based across the border which recently took up residence in the former Resolute Café unit in Higginson Park – said he had worked with the council on the removal, describing it as “a very scruffy, sinking and derelict” craft.

(Image: Will French)

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Will, 37, who brought the company to Marlow’s banks of the Thames four years ago, said he was approached by the council to help with the work thanks to his "knowledge of the river”, describing it as a “good example” of community-focused action to keep the waterway adjoining Higginson Park as clean and pretty as possible.

The café owner, who worked with both Buckinghamshire and Marlow Town Council to makeover the Higginson Park space as part of an ongoing collaboration, said he thought the local authority had “resolved a number of issues in the park” in recent months – describing it as a “win for everyone”.

Will said the council took action after the Environment Agency served notice on the boat – something a spokesperson for the government department previously said would only happen if “a sunken bloat was blocking river traffic or presents a pollution or flood risk”.

The boat was taken by the Little Green Boat Company team to the Runnymede Boathouse on Wednesday, September 12 to be scrapped.

Clive Harriss, Cabinet Member for Culture and Leisure at Buckinghamshire Council, said: “This boat was abandoned and partly sunk. The Environment Agency served a 36 hour notice on the owner and once this had passed without response we were able to proceed with clearing it, working in collaboration with the Environment Agency to remove and dispose of it this week.

"It is only recently that the environmental damage caused by abandoned fibre glass boats degrading has been fully recognised, so we feel a strong responsibility to ensure that where possible, we can be of assistance or indeed instrumental in protecting our environment where threatened; this is a genuine issue and not just one of aesthetics."