BOAT owners' battle to keep using Footscray Wharf appears sunk, with Maribyrnong Council supporting the Port of Melbourne Corporation's (PoMC) long-term fight to remove them.

In a new, hardline stance, the council has called for the removal of up to four boats still moored at the wharf - more than four years after PoMC issued them with eviction notices. The wharf - declared unsafe by the PoMC, which refuses to fix it until the boats are gone - has been closed since July 2005.

Cr Michael Clarke said the council was tired of trying to negotiate with the boat owners, who had been offered alternate moorings 50metres away.

He described them as "squatters" and the boats as "an eyesore".

"We had expected that the redevelopment [of the wharf] was going to occur quite some time ago so once again our public can engage with, and have access to, an active, vibrant and interesting waterfront. We want no further delays.

"Those boats are an eyesore. Those boat owners aren't paying any fees to the Port, rates to the council or to Parks Victoria. They are bludging. They are squatters." PoMC's head of corporate relations, Peter Harry, said it had repeatedly requested the owners to remove their boats, but some had been difficult to contact.

In 2006, PoMC applied for a Supreme Court injunction banning fisherman Robin McGarvie from mooring at the wharf and seeking legal costs, but this application was denied by Justice Kevin Bell.

Mr Harry said PoMC might put in a public notice so it could physically remove the boats.

"Hopefully, a resolution is not far away."

Grenville Silvester is among 35-odd boatmen who gave up the fight to keep the wharf open. He now moors at the Docklands, but insists there is no reason PoMC should have closed the wharf.

"The Port is just so dogmatic. Even though they had the Supreme Court telling them we could stay and they had to fix it [the wharf] up, they are still doing what they want.