Waiting list information
About Waiting Lists
Scottish Canals operates waiting lists for each of our moorings sites and for each type of mooring at each site - i.e. leisure, commercial and residential.
The following information is intended to help customers understand how we manage and administer waiting lists.
Our Moorings team are responsible for the management and administration of waiting lists at a national level with support from local waterway offices (Crinan, Caledonian, Lowland Canals).
Waiting lists are ordered by date of application and offers will generally be made on a ‘next on the list’ basis. If you accept an offer from us, the mooring fee is payable even if you do not move your boat to the site by the agreed start date. We will make a maximum number of offers per waterway unit. If you decline all offers, we will be unable to retain your place on the waiting list for that particular canal but you are welcome to reapply.
- You must be 18 years or over to make an application.
- You can make an application for your boat to be on the waiting list for a maximum of three sites for the Caledonian and Forth & Clyde canals and two sites for the Crinan and Union canals.
- You can make applications to more than one canal.
- Your positions on each mooring site waiting list are independent of each other.
- If you wish to make an application for more than one boat, you must make a different application for each boat.
- Anyone wishing to live aboard their boat must apply for a residential mooring.
When a mooring becomes available, we will generally offer it on a ‘next on the list’ basis - please note that we reserve the right to exercise our discretion, depending on the circumstances, for example:
- smaller boats at the lower end of the waiting list may be allocated before larger boats depending on the size of the mooring available;
- we may need to give priority to boats requiring relocation from other Scottish Canals mooring sites;
- the condition of the boat at the time of the offer may be unsuitable for the mooring site;
- for health and safety reasons; or
- for operational reasons.
Once we make you an offer of a mooring you have 14 days to accept or decline the offer in writing .
If you wish to accept our offer you must do so in writing. When accepting an offer, you have a further 14 days from the date of acceptance to return your forms and payment. Mooring fees apply from the agreed start date and not when you move your boat to the mooring.
Any offer we make is conditional on you having a valid Navigation Licence for the boat before it is moved to the mooring.
When you accept our offer of a mooring, it can only be allocated to the person whose name is on the waiting list. The mooring is not transferable.
If you do not accept our offer within the 14-day time limit our offer will lapse and we will offer the mooring to another person on the list. For the avoidance of doubt, the following actions will be treated as declining/refusing our offer:
- you fail to respond to our offer within the time limit, or
- you fail to return the completed Mooring Permit Application Form and payment within the time limit, or
- you return an incomplete Mooring Permit Application Form within the time limit
If you decline/refuse the maximum number of offers from a particular Scottish canal your name will be removed from all waiting lists for that canal.
The positions of your name on the waiting lists are not transferable to anyone else.
If a mooring site is separated into more than one section (e.g. linear and pontoons) and your requirement is for only one of these, you must make this clear on the Waiting List Application Form so that you do not need to decline/refuse an offer because the mooring is unsuitable.
From time to time we may contact you to confirm your continued interest in the mooring sites. If you do not respond within 28 days, we will assume that that you are no longer interested and we will remove your name from all our waiting lists. No reminders will be issued after our first contact.
If you are on our waiting lists but wish to change any of your chosen sites, you must withdraw your interest in the sites you no longer want in writing and make a new application for your new mooring site preferences.
A full list of mooring locations is available on our website at https://www.scottishcanals.co.uk/boating/licenses-moorings/long-term-moorings-and-licences/long-term-moorings