Westminster: GoBoat's canal booze cruise win – but locals fear drunken chaos with public sex and poo

Westminster City Council said GoBoat could sell up to two cans of beer per customer or a bottle of wine between two on its luxury skippered cruises between 9am and 10pm, seven days a week.

The council also ordered the company to install CCTV cameras and banned the sale of spirits and super-strength beverages “except for premium beers and ciders supplied in glass bottles and cans,” the decision, which was published on June 11, said.

The approval comes more than a week after councillors heard from worried residents who feared allowing GoBoat to serve drinks would lead to more antisocial behaviour (ASB), following previous incidents where unaccompanied boat trips resulted in alcohol-fuelled ASB.

One objector told the council’s Licensing Committee on Wednesday (June 4) that wasted customers have been abusive and use residents’ gardens and the towpath as a loo. She also said boaters also ram into barges because “they find it funny”.

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She said: “They like to use our gardens as toilets. They will climb over our boats, they will moor their boats to our boats, they will climb over the gates to get to our flowerbeds for a pee. The monitors are unable to control it and honestly, they’re only young people, they don’t get much training. It’s a holiday job, for goodness sake.”

Another said drunken punters shout at his children and that despite GoBoat banning alcohol on its self-driving rental boats, customers still sneak drinks on board.

GoBoat’s co-founder, Julian Wootton, told the committee customer have to undergo bag checks before boarding otherwise they’re refused entry. He said customers have been known to sneak drinks on board in baguettes.

The company already has permission from the River Canal Trust to run bring-your-own cruises but applied for a liquor licence “to retain a lot of that control”.

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Mr Wootton said: “Us having a skippered service with alcohol on board is not the subject to this alcohol licence application.

“We could have launched our skipper service with alcohol on board already. Had we done that, we could have asked customers to bring their own alcohol to the boat and I suspect they would have gone to M&S two minutes away from our location.

“Really, this is a decision on whether we sell alcohol to our customers or M&S sells alcohol to our customers. I believe if we sell it, we retain a lot of that control.

“We want to make this a high-quality professional operation. Just like you wouldn’t expect a high quality restaurant to ask its customers to bring their own drinks, I don’t think a high-end skippered operation should ask their customers to bring their own drinks.”

GoBoat said it will only sell alcohol to paid customers from its kiosk. Purchased drinks will then be stored in a secured location on board its Luxe boats in Merchant Square, Paddington.

According to a Westminster City licensing report, residents called on the council to reject GoBoat’s application after witnessing public sex, nudity, intimidation, harassment and thousands of pounds worth of damage to their properties.

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GoBoat said their new luxury service was “not a return to unsupervised drinking” and is instead aimed at small groups seeking a “serene and well-managed boating experience”. The company stopped customers drinking on their range of self-driving rental boats following protests from residents and barge owners.

The company currently manages 16 rental boats and a narrowboat but these won’t be used for selling alcohol. The company operates boats in Paddington, Canary Wharf, Kingston and Thames Ditton, according to its website.

From £10 per person, based on eight people sharing, customers can enjoy up to three hours cruising along London’s canals. No boating licence is required and the boats travel at a speed of 3-6mph – an equivalent of 2.6-5.2 knots.