The article states,"...it will be a criminal offence to moor on council-owned or managed land."

I never cease to be amazed at the differences between US and UK legal thinking on some issues. In the US, navigable waterways belong to everyone. The fact that a waterway runs through a property doesn't give the property owner any rights over it. Property rights end at the water's edge. With the exception of some restricted areas around military installations and the like, it's legal to moor a boat anywhere as long it is not a hazard to navigation.

Having said that, it's quite possible that in a similar situation, boats moored on a US waterway might be evicted under claim of their posing a hazard to navigation, that being a rather broad concept. But no local governing body could ever pass an ordinance banning mooring just because the boats aren't as pretty as they'd like.