Council Marina's

[robertj]

Isn't it time that the council got its act together and build some council run marinas at an affordable fee?
They would certainly make money and have happy boater there too!
Good competition for the others who charge what they feel they can screw from the boating fraternity.

 

[savageseadog]

There are some here and there but the government is keen to see "businesses" of any type being sold off and run by pivate enterprise generally.

 

[SlimRick]

Like Pwllheli????

 

[robertj]

Like Pwllheli????

and are they run ok at affordable prices?

 

[status]

I think Port Edgar on the Forth at Edinburgh is council run and there are many complaints about that one.

 

[SlimRick]

and are they run ok at affordable prices?

Rather expensive and heavily criticised.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

Isn't Ramsgit council owned and run, that says it all

 

[robertj]

well I would have thought it would have been like in France as the marinas are municipal?

 

[mersey]

South Dock Marina, London's largest marina, run by Southwark Council.

Not cheap though..

 

[[70521]]

They don't have any money and sailing is not seen as an inclusive sport so does not tick all the boxes.

 

[Chrusty 1]

Yes a lot on here will criticise municipal marinas, but I think in a lot of cases it's more to do with their political persuasion than facts. My mate keeps his boat in the municipal marina at Comox on Vancouver island, and you would be hard pressed to better it, it's also very cheap compared to British rip off marinas.

Check it out.......

http://marinas.com/view/marina/12687_Comox_Municipal_Marina_BC_Canada

http://comox.ca/services/marina/marina-rates-bylaw

 

[Fr J Hackett]

Yes a lot on here will criticise municipal marinas, but I think in a lot of cases it's more to do with their political persuasion than facts. My mate keeps his boat in the municipal marina at Comox on Vancouver island, and you would be hard pressed to better it, it's also very cheap compared to British rip off marinas.

Check it out.......

http://marinas.com/view/marina/12687_Comox_Municipal_Marina_BC_Canada

http://comox.ca/services/marina/marina-rates-bylaw

People criticise UK council run marinas for the same reason that they criticise privately run marinas, usually they are maned by officious jobsworths poorly run and offer poor value for money all your post serves to demonstrate is that other countries can do things better than we can.

 

[l'escargot]

A civil servant, running a marina paid for out of the council tax and earning a "gold plated pension" off the fees. Now I wonder how popular that would be...

 

[Chrusty 1]

A civil servant, running a marina paid for out of the council tax and earning a "gold plated pension" off the fees. Now I wonder how popular that would be...

But it's ok for a manager / director of a privately run marina to do the same?

 

[Chrusty 1]

People criticise UK council run marinas for the same reason that they criticise privately run marinas, usually they are maned by officious jobsworths poorly run and offer poor value for money all your post serves to demonstrate is that other countries can do things better than we can.

Officious jobsworths? Poorly run? How do you know that, have you been in them all?

I suspect that like a lot on here you just hate the idea of anything not being privatised?

PS. I would nationalise the feckin' lot of 'em if I had my way, and pay poor people to come and moor a boat in 'em! ))

 

[Tranona]

Council run marinas usually occur when they get stuck with land in redevelopments that nobody else wants. There is little benefit in investing ratepayer's money in something that will not necessarily benefit ratepayers.

The situation in France is very different. Most of the municipal marinas are in economically depressed areas where land is cheap and they bring trade into the local economy. In the UK most marinas have to compete with other demands on the land in areas of dense population, and as we have seen often only make financial sense if they have housing or commercial development attached to them.

Not all marinas have the same cost structure. Many S Coast marinas are in intertidal marsh areas and the biggest single cost is dredging to keep sufficient depth, or use of locks or sills which constrain entry. A few, and perhaps the best are in areas enclosed by bund walls, such as Portland but they are high cost to build and still require significant shoreside areas for workshops, car parking etc.

Marinas can be operated very economically, but up till now demand has always exceeded supply, so there is little incentive to reduce costs to be competitive.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

Officious jobsworths? Poorly run? How do you know that, have you been in them all?

I suspect that like a lot on here you just hate the idea of anything not being privatised?

PS. I would nationalise the feckin' lot of 'em if I had my way, and pay poor people to come and moor a boat in 'em! ))

Nope I would have welcomed well run public marinas offering value for money contributing to a local economy and offering competition to lower berthing prices. However the few that I visited in this country failed on all counts.

Get back under the bed

 

[chanelyacht]

Councils don't need to be running marinas. They've enough things already they can't do properly, without adding some more.

Classic example is Weymouth. OK, not a marina, but the council owns the ferry berth. Result - due to incompentent management, Condor are in Poole this year whilst the berth is rebuilt, costing the town millions on the one year in its history when it really needed a good international link. No ABP (or similar) run port would ever let that happen.

Whilst is true that some marinas in France are run by councils, a lot more are run by bertholders cooperatives. That would seem to me to be a far more equitable way of proceeding than either being at the mercy of the private sector, or with fingers in the pockets of the council tax payer.

 

[Chrusty 1]

Nope I would have welcomed well run public marinas offering value for money contributing to a local economy and offering competition to lower berthing prices. However the few that I visited in this country failed on all counts.

Get back under the bed

You wait, come the revolution comrade!!!................Harumph! I aint holding me breath!

Seriously, I just can't see that they are all as bad as you are painting them, why would people berth in them if they were? Personally I would welcome a marina that was just pontoons, maybe some bogs, and a bit of hard standing, as long as it was cheap. I don't want restaurants, chandlers shops and fancy waterside apartments, just somewhere with a nice clean pontoon to keep me boat. I posted about the Comox one because I know it's a good example of what a publicly owned one can be.

The trouble is, in this country, it's all about money.

 

[Chrusty 1]

Councils don't need to be running marinas. They've enough things already they can't do properly, without adding some more.

Classic example is Weymouth. OK, not a marina, but the council owns the ferry berth. Result - due to incompentent management, Condor are in Poole this year whilst the berth is rebuilt, costing the town millions on the one year in its history when it really needed a good international link. No ABP (or similar) run port would ever let that happen.

Whilst is true that some marinas in France are run by councils, a lot more are run by bertholders cooperatives. That would seem to me to be a far more equitable way of proceeding than either being at the mercy of the private sector, or with fingers in the pockets of the council tax payer.

Trouble with the berth holder co-operative idea though, is that it would only be monied people that could get involved with the land purchase and the dredging and construction. So they will want to be making loads of wedge out of it when it's completed...Ergo, it's privately owned, and when the time and or the offer was right, they would sell out to one of the big operators.