A family of houseboat owners are awaiting the outcome of a last-ditch appeal to stave off eviction from a flood-risk area in Kingston.

Mary Graham, 57, and her husband Hilary, 59, who were instrumental in saving a drowning woman’s life last month, made an official appeal to the planning inspector on Tuesday.

They want themselves and neighbour Janet Mahon to stay at moorings near Kingston railway bridge, where they have lived since May 2006.

The Environment Agency objected to them mooring there permanently on health and safety grounds, and the council refused planning permission in April.

There was vocal support, and opposition, from the public gallery during the hearing at Antoinette Hotel. MP for Kingston and Surbiton Edward Davey made a brief appearance at the start to show his support, stating in a letter he handed to the inspectorate that it was an issue of human rights.

Others had less sympathy and argued that the boats had already overstayed, after originally being granted a six-month reprieve, and were preventing valuable visitors from stopping in the town.

London Waterway Commission member Del Brenner, adviser to the Mayor of London, said: “I very strongly support bringing the waterways back to life. Visitor moorings are one thing that we are really pushing for.”

Tom Chaplin, managing director of Freight Afloat, was more concerned with the commercial implications of the wharf, and the fact freights are using the river with increasing frequency.

He said: “It’s the most sustainable form of transport, by and large, therefore it is perceived that there will be a need for more wharves min the future.

“Sixty-thousand tonnes-a-year are now taken down the Grand Union Canal whereas 20 or 30 years ago, we had nothing.”

Despite the negative comments, support for the Railway Wharf residents is long-standing, after the boat owners were evicted from Hart’s Boatyard, Surbiton, in 2002.

They were given temporary permission to move to their current home following the eviction but Mrs Graham, a community project manager in the Cambridge Road estate, said no alternative sites within the borough had been offered.

Desmond Kay, founder of Kingston Green Fair, which was held close to the wharf, gave an impassioned speech to the planning inspectorate on why they should be allowed to stay.

He said: “It just seems a shame. They are a family that have lived on the riverside for so many years and their children know no other way of living.

“I am amazed at the torrent of objections to a couple of families who I feel have improved the area and seem to me should have as much right as anyone else to live in the borough. I’m sorry to talk from the heart on an emotional level rather than technical but I feel it’s important.”

On Saturday, January 23, the Grahams helped save the life of a drowning woman and the PC Andy Cougar, the officer involved in the rescue, said without their boat Buster the 35-year-old woman would have died.

They have since received a letter of commendation from Kingston police, thanking them for their efforts.

A decision from the planning inspector is due to be released next week.

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