Hero houseboat owners are facing eviction, after losing a long-winded battle to convert their moorings to residential use.

Mary and Hilary Graham have lived at Railway Wharf, Kingston, with neighbour Jan Mahon, since 2006, but were refused permission for a permanent change of use in March 2009.

During their appeal hearing, they argued against the Environment Agency’s claim the boats were an undue risk in times of flooding and said the moorings were no use to visiting boats because of their height.

But planning inspector Jennifer Vyse disagreed and also argued granting residential use would reduce the river’s capacity to accommodate freight traffic in future.

Ms Vyse said she was mindful losing the appeal could mean they would become homeless, but said that had to be weighed up against the wider public interest.

The Grahams, who recently helped police save a drowning woman from the river and have a double award-winning riverside garden, were devastated to lose their appeal.

Mrs Graham said: “It is up to the council now to decide what it is going to do with us.

“We had huge amounts of support and I think the council could have stood up to the Environment Agency from the beginning.

“To say it was lilly-livered is an understatement. We are absolutely dripping with moorings that people don’t use in Kingston, because people only stop for a short time before heading up river.

“Eviction will be the next thing. It just seems endless.”

Councillor Barry O’Mahony said the council was now entitled to evict them but said there would be no hurry to act before the election.

Coun O’Mahony, who has shown his support for the boat owners since the beginning, said: “It should never have got to this point.

"They aren’t doing anybody any harm. I just wish we had a reasonable alternative to offer them.

“Whatever happens, this is just more uncertainty in their lives and they can not settle properly now.

"I am saddened for the family and what they have been put through.”

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