RIVER users have warned that new £200,000 moorings planned for Wallingford will not be fit for purpose unless the design is changed.

South Oxfordshire District Council, which is funding the project, has submitted a planning application to build 136 metres of moorings to boost the town’s tourist industry and encourage boaters to stay in the town instead of heading up-river to Abingdon.

But river users said the proposed moorings on the east bank of the River Thames would be so high that the project might become an expensive white elephant.

The council has warned that if the design is changed, it could threaten the roots of historic trees lining the river bank.

The chairman of the local River Thames Users’ Group, John Dalton, said people in low boats would find the proposed moorings impossible to use, particularly if elderly and disabled people were using the river.

Mr Dalton said: “They would be the highest moorings on the non-tidal Thames.

“It is ridiculous. It’s absolutely not fit for purpose and not acceptable. I’m not convinced that there is not a better way of doing it that will keep everybody happy.

“If not, we’re going to get the same problem that we already have — people will not stop at Wallingford, but will just carry on up.”

Boat owner John Gordon, who rows a mile from his home in Bow Bridge to shop in Wallingford, said: “There is a longer-term underlying issue about Wallingford’s failure to make proper use of the river and make sure people other than power cruisers and the rowing community has access. Ten or 20 years ago the Boat House was a famous centre for hiring rowing boats, skiffs and punts. It would be marvellous if we could get that back.”

However, the district councillor responsible for the project, Rodney Mann, said the existing river bank largely determined what could be built. He said: “They are lower than the moorings on the opposite side of the river, which are extremely popular, and they will allow many more people to stop and visit the town, which is what we’re trying to achieve.

“We will continue to involve the Environment Agency and the river users’ group in the project, which has the support of the town council.”

On Monday, Wallingford Town Council backed the project.

Clerk Andrew Rogers said it was an important project, and the trees along the river bank were ‘sacrosanct’. He said: “Every effort has to be made that we don’t endanger those trees, whose roots extend at least as far as the canopy. That makes moorings very difficult to build around them.”