Fuming locals hit with £10k bill after breaking bizarre fence rule

SWNS

Residents living by a picturesque marina have been ordered to pay £10,000 for a new fence - to stop them helping boat users with their shopping.  People living in Albion Mill in Worcester have been banned from passing bags over the existing railings.  To avoid a 20-minute walk carrying heavy bags, boat owners leave their shopping at metal railings on the opposite side of the pontoon where their boats are moored.  They then walk around the apartments to access Diglis Marina and have their bags passed over the railings by kind-hearted Albion Mill residents.  Apartment managers now plan to erect a 2m (6.5ft) high 35m (114ft) long fence to block off the pontoon after two people complained about boat owners trespassing.  They say the current practice means boat owners access a private car park and say some people have been climbing over the metal railings.  But furious residents claim they are being punished for helping boat owners.

Transcript

00:00Hello, I'm Tony Woss. I'm a resident boater here at Diglis Basin and our boat is moored

00:12next to Albion Mill. This is the fence that divides us and causes the problems and the

00:18issues that we have at the moment. So basically we have no access to here apart from a very

00:23long 400 metre walk from the access gate, which is the end of this pontoon. Before that

00:28we have to walk all the way around the marina from our car park, which is probably getting

00:32on for a 10 minute walk, half a kilometre, to get to that gate, which is locked and with

00:36a key, so only boaters can get in and out. If we don't do that we have to drive our car

00:42in and pass our shopping or other heavy items over the fence, which is all we do, and then

00:48we drive out. We don't park here, we just leave and go back to our car park. Obviously

00:53this is incredibly inconvenient and also it has implications for health and safety

00:58because if the emergency service were required to get to us it would be an absolute nightmare,

01:02bearing in mind that they would have to get through a locked gate which they don't have

01:05the key.

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