BOATERS are complaining their mooring fees have risen by more than a third in three years on a stretch of the Oxford Canal in the city.

Thirteen boaters live on narrowboats near Hythe Bridge Street in the city centre and pay for residential moorings from British Waterways.

The cost is set to rise to £194.66 a year from April – up eight per cent on the previous year’s fees.

Boaters say that means an increase of more than 33 per cent since 2010 and could force them to move elsewhere.

British Waterways said fees for the stretch of canal had been too low for years.

Father-of-two Richard Lewis has been living on his narrowboat at Hythe Bridge for the past 10 years, and said it now costs him about £5,000 a year to live there, taking into account mooring fees, the houseboat licence and council tax payments.

He added: “It is now getting to the point where boaters are really struggling to pay these increases and are considering moving somewhere else.

“Boaters who live on this stretch of the canal are alarmed by these increases and feel frustrated and powerless to do anything about it.

“We feel they have fewer rights than people living in mobile homes. When home-owners are increasingly squeezed, and homelessness is on the rise, British Waterways has been quietly raising the mooring rates for the houseboat community in central Oxford by massive amounts.

“They show no sign of stopping this trend, despite such a miserable lack of affordable housing in central Oxford.”

Father-of-two Nick Belshaw, 56, who lives with his wife Diane on a 60ft narrowboat at Hythe Bridge, and works for Oxford University as a geology researcher, said: “We are at our wits’ end because British Waterways has quite a monopoly on canal moorings.”

British Waterways spokesman Ed Fox said: “Some locations we have undercharged in the past and this is one. The moorings here have been historically underpriced and we have been consulting with boaters over the last five years to resolve the situation.

“We have a legal responsibility to charge market rates at our mooring sites to ensure we do not compete unfairly with private operators.

“The income we raise is reinvested in the upkeep of infrastructure and facilities of the 200-year old canals and rivers in our care.”