Boat owners, particularly those living aboard their vessels, say they are disgusted at a whopping 66.6% rise in parking permit fees at Ramsgate harbour.
The fee for the annual permit to park in the area along the crosswall has risen from £180 for the 2025/26 financial year to a massive £300 for the year from this April. The rise is partially blamed on a deficit in port and harbour income and Thanet council’s need to ‘align’ charges with other comparable areas.
Jenny, who has lived on her 60ft barge for the last 10 years, says that she and many of the harbour residents simply cannot afford such a rise and will have to find street parking elsewhere.
“We can’t afford to pay”
The 76-year-old former air hostess, who sold her home to buy the barge, said: “Like others I am a resident and pay council tax. Our parking goes up every year, usually by about £10 but now it has gone up to £300.
“Even when you pay that you don’t have a guaranteed space, the permit just gives you permission to park on a small part of the crosswall.
“They have already taken away 10 spaces for the improvements to the (maritime) museum and new café and all the people using Spoons just go in there for free anyway because, after nine years of asking, there is still no fob barrier there.
“We just can’t afford to pay nearly double. They have also put up fees for visiting crews to £400 (from £290 last year) to park on the harbour and that is really going to kill the yacht club, especially in Ramsgate Week when all the students come to help with the sailing.
“It’s not fair and it is not right. It’s disgraceful that the council can even think of doing this. Residential boat owners pay council tax and also put a lot of money into Ramsgate and the Harbour. If anything we should be given a discount.
“At no time were any of these changes and rises in charges discussed with us. No attempt was made to consult with us beforehand which is totally out of order.
“A lot of us will not be paying the £300, myself included, and will find elsewhere to park but for the older residents they will struggle. especially in winter when they are trying to get their shopping and winter fuel, like coal logs and gas bottles, to the harbour to get onto our boats. It’s going to be very difficult.”
‘Services not delivered’
Jenny says despite being a resident, there are many commercial fees on top of the council tax but claims services, such as promised Wi-Fi, are not delivered.
She added: “We are paying twice as much for our electric than any other harbour, treble for parking and we still have no Wi-Fi. Then in an emergency in the harbour or if someone taken ill, there are no names, no numbers at start of each pontoon for family and friends or importantly ambulance staff or fire crew to find us in an emergency.
“If someone has a heart attack, they could be dead before the paramedics find them.
“The East amenities, disabled toilet/shower and men’s section, is also disgusting and falling apart and it’s a trip hazard. The ladies’ side is passable.
“The washing machine and dryer are forever breaking down and normally take a month to six weeks to repair and we still have wooden finger pontoons in parts of harbour that are lethal, they are very slippery and rock and move as they are not attached or balanced properly.”
Another boat resident also branded the rise “disgusting” and complained that the barrier system had still not been put in while a fellow harbour user added: “Everyone is up in arms about it, you’d expect an incremental rise of 2% or 3% but £300 is more than 60% and you don’t even really get anything for it.”
‘Significant’ rise
A response to boat owners complaints from the harbour master says: “We understand that the increase from £180 to £300 is significant. This adjustment is necessary to align our charges with comparable annual parking permits in other areas.
“The previous rate had been maintained below market level for several years, and even at the new rate, our annual permit remains well below many other locations.
“As a commercial entity, the harbour relies on maintaining the necessary income to continue investing in our services and providing a high standard for all our customers.
“We appreciate that this is a difficult adjustment for businesses and harbour users.
“The fees and charges have been through an extensive review, including an assessment by an external party, to identify how to prevent the ongoing deficit at the harbour.
“For too long, council reserves funded by taxpayers have been used to balance the harbour budget. Consequently, the income generated must be appropriate to its expenditure.
“We propose that the broad range of changes and additional commercial income at the port will cover this, which has resulted in large increases across all areas, including a 10% increase in berthing fees for commercial vessels.”
A Thanet council spokesperson added: “As a commercial entity, the harbour must maintain the income necessary to continue investing in services and maintaining facilities, including toilets.
“The previous car parking rate was set below market level for several years, and even at the new rate, our annual permit remains competitive and equates to only £6 per week.
“Enforcement officers attend the site regularly, to monitor unauthorised parking. Findings consistently show very few vehicles parked without a valid permit. Heritage restrictions have previously made securing planning permission for a parking barrier difficult but we are revisiting this.”
The party set up to look after the interests & rights of the poorest in society greedy dictators at every level-TDC now trying to close shops down, & if that doesn’t work put people out of business with sky high rates-they only want huge national chains everywhere selling the same thing-as stated by a local Labour councillor recently-who effectively said small shops are dead/worthless, removing seating, forcing the poorest to pay for renovations to Arlington House-while rewarding the billionaire slum landlords & now this.
Does one think they went everybody there to go, so they can try & flog it off to a huge corporation?
Imagine an estate agent jacking the price of a property up from 180k to 300k overnight-of course they wouldn’t, because they are professionals.
TDC is clearly run by greedy amateurs-seems they consulted everybody, bar the people there it actually impacts. Just like trying to close shops rather than working with them to resolve any issues & removing seating for the majority, rather than dealing with the minority of troublemakers.
A 10 or 20 quid increase would have been acceptable, but no 120 quid-pure avarice once again from the new Tory party. Perhaps TDC since it is going on piously about waste, it could tell those at Ramsgate Harbour how much taxpayer money they are wasting on the bouncers to do the job the police, PSCO’s & town wardens in Ramsgate are being paid to do, but aren’t?
its a pity TDC dont get anything from the windfarm company that gives the harbour many thousands of pounds per week for the use of the harbour for thier support vessels , they claim it goes to the crown estate ? however gets it , this is a small fortune every year that could go towards the harbour , this vast sum of money is never mentioned – someone is having it ?
They get mooring fees.
A Typical Council response, we are not covering costs, so we will increase costs, spend thousands on mew office desks and reduce the level of service.
Where the answer is reduce costs and increase the service levels.
Unfortunately their plan will result in less use of the harbour and ever increasing debt.
Less than £1 a day. Hardly a fortune for someone who can afford to own and run a boat.
They aren’t all rich like Captain & Tennille.
I was thinking the same less than a pound to park your car for 24hrs cheapest paid parking in thanet and still moan !
Like just about every over marina in UK.suspect the T&C’s in Ramsgate specifically prohibit livaboards and somebody has been turning a blind eye.
Start making a fuss and do not be surprised if they start to enforce
the rules that folks signed up to.
What does she mean by street parking – with a barge? I genuinely don’t get what they mean?
Wonder where the traffic warden would stick the ticket?
people who live on boats, can also own cars. Thanks for trying though.
The problem is short sighted miss-managment of the resources they have. It is easy to see that the inner harbour is full to overflowing at an annual cost in the order of £4000-£6000 for a 30ft+ yacht. I cannot believe that taken individually, the marina runs at a loss. There is no expansion plan. It will either grow, as the size of yachts are, or the smart money goes elsewhere and they are left with relics and liveaboards. (No offence intended to those that do). I have twice, attempted to get a berth without success – someone else gets my £6500pa. Move the commercial business to the outer ship harbour, expand the paying component, the marina, by 100 or more berths, add £1m+ pa income for existing infrastructure and make the commercial part pay or leave.
Christopher, as far as I know the marina doesn’t run at a loss it’s the New Port where the millions are being lost. Some businesses like Bretts appear to get a lot of support at the expense of small boats owners.
Sell your house and live on a boat?
Can you legally live 100% of the time on a mooring in Ramsgate harbour?
Do they pay council tax?
Why do they need to park on the harbour? I understand fishermen have no choice but get penalised.
There are ample parking places in and around Ramsgate for them.
Brilliant well done .that just means the westcliff and surrounding roads will be full of cars that belong down the harbour and those that live up Royal rd etc will find it even harder to park there cars . And who’s going to visit and pay these prices. The more you charge the less people will visit and pay. Its the harbour staffs payrises in April the reason the big rise in charges.
Before we all start running around and thinking the worst we should consider the matter in the round.
Yes,TDC are guilty as charged for not investing in the Royal harbour.However, the parking charges are hardly extortionate at £300 pa. I am not sure about the mooring fees, but I know that every year boats are sold because owners abandon them and leave feees unpaid.
There are really2 kinds of boatowners.The first are the yachting types who expect to spend a small fortune on the upkeep of their craft, and then there are the second kind of boat owner who live on board on what sometimes are older vessels.they live onboard for economical reasons,to save on rent or a mortgage.They will not have a large income and should their vessel sink they would be homeless.In essence they are the maritime equivalent of those persons living in old motor homes and horseboxes you see parked up in many coastal communities.like so many they are drawn to the seaside but cannot afford the up keep of a house or flat.
Some live quietly and cause no issues, others less so, especially when there is a road closure around the harbour for armed forces day.
I can see their point,but some allotment tenants pay more for at lot less in services provided.how much does wifi cost us, at least £3 to 400 per annum alone so perhaps both TDC and the boat owners should talk and both be a bit realistic.
Just over 82p a day to park your car. They are some sectors of our community they seem to want to be subsidised by others in the community. Do you have to be a boat owner to apply for this parking.
As someone who works in ramsgate I will happy pay 82p a day.
What most of you people do not understand is that residents in the marina who do pay council tax do not get any government subsidy’s or relief. They pay into the society and at double the rate of other tenants who claim benefits and social subsidy’s and do what they want. They pay twice for local services and receive less support than the people disembarking in the harbour from abroad. They are not water gypsies and pay double for the environment they love and aim to preserve. Should the focus be on the camper cans that are permanently parked on Military Road that live there and do not contribute a Penney to Thanet rather than focus on people that pay on average £4000+ for a service that fails and still pat council tax and dues to support others and then watch fly tippers and day trippers use parking spaces that cost birth holders £300 per year on top of fees at £5000 and council tax.