HOPES have been raised that the free-moorings feud at Teignmouth Harbour will be put to bed. It comes after news was announced on Tuesday that 48 boat-owners have been granted the right to moor for free. Sixty-three of the 750 river users submitted a bid for free-moorings as part of a bid to solve a decade-old row. The Harbour Commission, lessees from riverbed owners Crown Estates, last year thrashed out a set of criteria with other individuals and river-user groups about who has the right to moor to free. They agreed to honour prescriptive rights attached to a property and set of concessions, instead of acknowledging customary rights of people whose families have used free trots, some for generations. Of the free moorings doled out, seven people were awarded under concessionary criteria. The others were through their prescriptive rights. Fifteen people have either had claims rejected or have been asked for more evidence. Harbour Commission clerk Graham Bond said: 'I don't think we really anticipated how the process would go, but what a lot of people have ended up with is a valuable asset. 'We hope that apart from a small minority, the matter will be put to bed,' he said. Earlier this year, angry mariners came together to question the authority of the Harbour Commission and assert rights to moor for free as their families had done for years. It is a claim, they say, that is protected by harbour acts dating back centuries. A three-strong appeal committee made up of one harbour commissioner, and two independents with no connection with the town and likely to be a retired naval commander and solicitor will deal with any claims that have already been rejected. Mooring holders have been given an assurance that nothing will happen to their moorings in the interim. Should some people not appeal or have it thrown out then they will have to enter into standard mooring agreement. If not, 'that is a matter they will have to take up with Crown Estates,' said Mr Bond. 'We do hope that it won't be any more than a handful of people,' he said. Commissioner Mark Leyton said that the hope was for river-users to work together in the future. 'The estuary is an asset to the town and we want to build on better working relationships. What this has done is make clear who has got what,' he said. Mr Bond added that it was important to take a 'light-touch approach,' in future. 'We want to regularise practice and set up working rules as a protocol. 'We want to live and let live and not interfere with people, but we do need to cover our backs as lessees,' he said.
