The Cam Conservancy have introduced the new regime under the guise of 'navigation rules', to ease the life of novice rowing crews going down the river to where they can race. CamBoaters and rowers alike find this justification dubious: the Cam is wide enough for rowing boats to navigate along side of the residential boats. Unexperienced crews will not derive a greater benefit from just six additional feet. The governance of the river is confused and archaic - the Conservancy deals with navigation while the City Council is responsible for recreation and, along with the County Council, own the river banks. As a result of this the Conservancy was able to have minimal consultation with boat residents and the impact was never properly assessed. There are now deep concerns that 'double mooring', attaching two boats side by side to the banks, will be dangerous during flooding. The wider social impact of the ban on the surrounding community was also ignored, in particular the security implications of transforming Midsummer Common into a no-man's land at night.

Aside from the irregularities and the unfairness of the process, most boaters and residents deny the legitimacy of the Conservancy to effectively evict residents from a river that has been inhabited for the last 500 years. Some fear that the ban on Midsummer Common is the beginning of a series of evictions that could aim to transform the river into a mere sporting facility. Others felt that they were just the latest victims of a centuries old tussle between town and gown: the leisure of a small number of privileged University kids destroying a thriving community.