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A shocking increase in non-payment of tolls has taken hold on the waterways of the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads, the regional ruling authority has announced.
Last year, 2024, a staggering 1,708 formal warnings were issued by the Broads Authority to suspected boat owners who were not paying the tolls. The figure amounts to nearly 14% of the estimated 12,000 vessels navigating these ancient waterways annually.
Beginning with the onset of 2025, the Authority has implemented a 5.9% average increase in tolls, which added a greater cost burden to the majority of crafts crossing the Broads.
Senior officer and head tolls enforcer Bill Housden referred to a stark rise in non-compliance. "What was once in the hundreds has metastasized into a much greater plague," he said, referencing the past when violations were at around 400 notices annually.
This rise in levies comes after the Authority's usual annual fiscal adjustment.
Chief Executive John Packman said of the division among boaters: "While over 6,000 individuals have paid their dues at a commendable pace, a not inconsiderable number prefers dishonesty to duty." He noted that the economic cost of these defaulters is unfairly borne by conscientious payers. Simultaneously with the toll crisis, the Broads Authority is battling against a growth of abandoned and neglected vessels—a blight on the riverside environment.
The River Yare alone has witnessed six boats sunk during the first quarter of 2025. Mr. Packman revealed that pursuing toll evaders has been a major bandwidth drain for the Authority.
Daniel Thwaites, a spokesperson on the navigation committee, emphasised that many rotting boats grounded in disrepair have very likely skipped paying their tolls for multiple years.
The abandoned boats may have been caused by an unsettling trend known as "gifting"—a clandestine practice in which worn-out and neglected boats are shared for free or hawked at a nominal price, thereby sparing operators the logistical and financial burden of disposing of them appropriately, the Local Democracy Reporting Service revealed.
Rob Rogers, the Authority's operations director, hinted at the possibility of a remedial program—a boat amnesty—later this year in a gamble to halt the tide of abandonment on the water before it engulfs the Broads.
