Amsterdam city council is shaking up the system for awarding licences to canal tour operators and dozens of boat owners say they may go bust because their boats are about to be banned.

Currently tour companies buy a licence for life, but the city council has now said all licences will be awarded for a fixed period only.

On Monday, the 135 licences for boats longer than 14 metres were handed out. Some 480 boats had applied for a permit in one of two categories – regular or characteristic – to run from 2020 to 2030.

In particular the owners of characteristic canal boats are furious at the way their boats were judged in a ‘beauty contest’ and say dozens of boats which have been part of the city’s waterways for decades are now being banned.

Among the casualties of the new system is the Hildebrand dating from 1880 and the oldest passenger boat on the Amsterdam canals. The Soeverein, with a piano and kitchen, will also be banned from the canals from 2020. Boat company ‘t Smidtje, lost all eight licences for its classic canal boats.

In total, one third of the licences have gone to new companies, city alderman Udo Kock said. The change has been made necessary by EU rules. ‘The closed market we have had for decades is simply unfair,’ Kock told the Parool newspaper.

From 2020, all boats offering trips to tourists must be fully electric.

Some three million people take a canal cruise in Amsterdam every year.