Forced closure of Mistley Quay - River Stour.

I only heard about this last weekend and will be writing to whoever I can think of in my capacity as Hon Sec of the RNSA, East Coast Branch.

Is this something the RYA should get involved in?

I have never sailed to Mistley Quay although I know it well from when I lived near there but to me it is the principle of losing a quay rather than the place itself.
 
Health and Safety yet again. It will soon be illegal to have an accident. Why oh why can't we just be allowed to take responsibility for our own safety. This is madness. Would the last person to leave the country p[lease turn off the lights .................. very carefully.
 
Earlier I e-mailed Mistley Parish Council to give the support of the East Coast Branch RNSA to have the Quay restored to a usable state. The Parish Clerk has just phoned me and he has given me the name of the chap in Tendring District Council Planning Department who is investigating this further - Richard Fletcher 01255 686868.

Any one wishing to register their support for saving the Quay perhaps you would like to give him a call.
 
I hope the author (Hon Sec, Stour Sailing Club) does not mind me posting this but I was forwarded a report via a local YC which details a lot of what this is about.


The owners of Mistley Quay in North Essex have begun fencing off the quayside so that no visiting yachts or barges may use the quayside, which they have been doing for hundreds of years. Allen’s Quay – the central part of the whole of the quay -was named in the Tendring District Council Adopted Local Plan as a “public access quay” (LMM1), yet the council now says it has no powers to enforce it. So much for a £1.8 million public consultation.

The quay owners claim that it was the Health & Safety Executive that told them to take this action. The HSE inspectors, Eddie Scroggins and Andrew Saunders (based in Chelmsford) originally agreed with the Stour Sailing Club that the owners should provide a ladder for sailors to use as well as a lifebuoy. They changed their minds and gave the quay owners two options: to decide if Allen’s Quay was operational or non-operational. If it was operational, they would have to put safety ladders on the quayside and bring it up to standard. If, however, they decided it was non-operational, they should fence it off. This played directly into the hands of the owners.

If the HSE are right, when will they fence off Maldon Quay, Slaughden Quay or Ha’penny Pier? The HSE should be challenged over this.

The company has been turning away visiting yachts and has placed notices on the quay discouraging mooring. We took advice from the barrister Sir Patrick Sinclair Bt. who is in Hogarth Chambers. Sir Patrick has a particular enthusiasm for obscure and ancient areas of law in the chancery field and also for cases involving legal and factual problems. He has written articles on the Law of Anchorage and Mooring in The Conveyancer and Property Lawyer. He has also written several articles on anchorage and mooring law and the nature of the Crown's interest in the sea bed in the magazine "Sailing Today". He specialises in conveyancing and all aspects of land law, including restrictive covenants, easements, commons, highways, foreshores and ports

Based on advice from Sir Patrick, we sent a letter to the owners of Mistley Quay, Trent Wharfage Ltd. on 9 April 2005 asking for some detailed information. We wanted to know their nature of interest in the quay - owner or tenant, with date of purchase. We asked them whether they were informed on lease or purchase that the quay was a public quay and that it had been so for a number of years. We asked them whether they would now acknowledge it was a public quay. We also asked if there is something in their lease of the quay or in the Conveyance of the Quay which is inconsistent with the subsistence of public rights over the Quay. We asked them for copies of the relevant provisions. We had no reply.

The matter in law is that Mistley Quay could only prove that the public could no longer use the quay if an Act of Parliament had been passed preventing public access. There isn't one. When they purchased the quay, they should have been made aware that it was a public quay and that yachtsmen should be given reasonable access across their land.

Another barrister the club has been in contact with is Edward Irving, who lives across the river from the quay. He gave us some historical information based on extracts from a book "Orwell Estuary (with Harwich and the Stour)" written by W.G. Arnott published by Norman Adlard & Co Ipswich 1954. The Quay seems to have been built in the 1770-80s by the Rigby family who employed Robert Adam, the architect. for their ventures there. The idea was to make Mistley into a Spa. It seems that the Quay was part of the substantial Mistley Hall estate owned by the Rigbys in the late 18th century.

"If it was, says Irving, "then it is probable that the foreshore at Mistley including the land on which the Quay was built was part of an ancient Crown grant of the manor of Mistley to the predecessors of the Rigby family. The predecessors may have been ecclesiastical e.g. the Bishopric of Bury. The current owners of Mistley Quay may be able to claim ownership of the quay through the successors in title to the Rigby family, or they may claim to be tenants of those successors in title." But, Irving suggests, "Such is the confusion of foreshore ownership at the present time that it is imprudent to accept unquestioningly anyone's claim to be the owner/tenant of a particular area of foreshore. This includes the Crown. Ask for the proof of the pudding."

In 1837 the Court of Chancery decreed that coal, wheat and barley distributed from the profits of the wharfage were to be given to the six poorest villagers in the almshouses. On the sale of Mistley Hall estate, lot 13 - including part of the quay - was sold to a Mr Allen of Sudbury. So it appears that the quay may not have been under single ownership more than a hundred years ago.

The owners of Mistley Quay failed to give us any legal information about access to the quay. Barrister Edward Irving told us, "we are therefore left to conclude that if the public have had uninterrupted, uncharged use of the quay for the purpose of landing and embarking for a substantial period (more than 20 years), there is an argument which is difficult to refute that the public have acquired, by an implied "dedication", a right of access to the sea over the quay and a right to moor there temporarily for the necessary purposes of their navigation. 'Necessary' could include tidal stranding, overnighting, provisioning, embarkation and disembarkation or short-term repair." Sir Patrick Sinclair concurs.

In 2007/8, Mistley Parish Council and the local councillors managed to get Mistley Quay listed as a public access quay in the Local Plan (Tendring District Council Adopted Local Plan Policy LMM1). Unfortunately, they now say this policy is unenforceable. How muich did the plan cost? How much did the public inquiry cost? What was the use of a local plan if the council cannot enforce it?

The owners of Mistley Quay have failed to reply to any of our points and have now begun fencing off the quay so than no sailors will be able to moor up and go landside. This, of course, also means that a quayside that has been used for sailing barges and yachts for hundreds of years is now out of bounds. The public will not be able to walk alongside the River Stour.
 
Strikes me that the next forum meet should be at Mistley Quay to fix a ladder in place and to fix a lifebouy as well. This will remove the need for the safety fencing which we can remove at the same time.

I am at Woodbridge this weekend so I will do a site survey.

I see this as a gesture of good will towards the operators of the commercial part of the Quay so they are not put under any financial obligation and it would reinforce the ancient rights of the casual users.
 
Evidence of a public landing spot can be found in the First Edition of The Pilots Guide to the Thames Estuary and the Norfolk Broads, W E Wilson, 1934, Imray
"Mistley - Except for one or two holes of 3ft just westward of the Maltings, there is practically no water here and craft must be prepared to take the mud. Landing - at Quayside; Facilities - etc etc"
and in the First Edition of East Coast Rivers, Jack Coote, 1956
"Landing at the quayside by means of one of the several vertical ladders is not easy, except at high water, but it is worth while going ashore...... etc, etc" Facilities at quayside are listed.
 
I was at the Mistley Quay Cafe last week and the fence wouldn't be going up until the poor person with the large trailer that has 4 flat tyres finds somebody to help him move it from exactly were the next fence panel was due to go. What bad luck !!! At the moment the quay has no ladders attached to it at all.
 
I'm off to Mistley/Manningtree tomorrow to pop to the library. If I remember (and my memory is a bit dodgy these days!) I'll take my camera and get some photos of the aforementioned wall. It's not something I can remember seeing recently and I cycle to Mistley and Manningtree several times a week - but perhaps I'm just unobservant.
 
under the highways act (section 30 or 31 I think it is) , If the public have had access across the land (12 or 20 years)it becomes highway, as long as signs were not up saying private or Highway rights shall not accru irrespective who owns it .
I will try to look the text up tomorrow if anyone is interested
 
<span style="color:red"> LATEST DEVELOPMENTS </span>

Taken from the Gazette, the daily paper for Colchester and north Essex.


Tendring: Council limited on Quay power

9:00am Friday 31st October 2008

TENDRING Council’s only power in a dispute over a fence at Mistley Quay might be as a “community leader”.

David Lines, who heads up the authority, made the admission at yesterday’s cabinet meeting.

Leading councillors were discussing what steps to take in the Free the Quay fight.

Quay owners Trent Wharfage put up a two-metre high fence for health and safety reasons – blocking access to the River Stour – in August.

It has prompted a campaign to get the barrier removed.

Councillors Sarah Candy and Carlo Guglielmi tabled a motion to a meeting of Tendring Council’s full council on October 16, asking councillors to condemn the fence and agree the council do everything it can to seek its removal.

Trent Wharfage sent a letter to town hall hours before the meeting, which prompted the motion to be deferred until a report is prepared.

An amended motion, asking the council to support the vision for Mistley Quay, was put forward to the council’s cabinet instead.

Mr Lines wanted clarification on a number of issues to help move the problem forward and expressed his disappointment Mrs Candy and Mr Guglielmi were not present.

Mr Lines said: “It appears Essex County Council and Tendring Council have taken this matter to the limit of their authorities."

Mr Lines said he will put the questions to Mrs Candy in writing.

It was resolved a report will be discussed at the cabinet meeting on November 13.

l Mrs Candy has explained her absence.

She and husband Neil Stock are spending the half-term holidays with their children, she said.

http://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/3807493.Tendring__Council_limited_on_Quay_power/
 
According to local gossip...t'was one of us that did the foul deed and complained about the lack of facilities & safety equipment to Trent Wharfage & local council! Whilst trying to get ashore. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif Once they got HSE involved, I suppose the outcome was a foregone conclusion! Was up there last weekend and the fence seems to have been modified. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
I note that, once again, the "Health & Stupidity Executive" are doing their best to ruin people's freedom to enjoy themselves and to exercise "free will".
I used to sail from the Solent and had the pleasure only once to visit Mistley Quay
I moved to France 9 years ago to get away from the British thought police. In at least one part of Europe, common sense prevails.
Whilst I support you wholeheartedly I fear that the nanny state will prevail. George Orwell was wrong, 1984 - 2008.
www.leschenauds.com
 
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