Harbour Dues: up yours!

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WALTERJOHN

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Is anyone getting as peeved as I am over the escalating chrges for Harbour Dues? Have just been invoiced for £144 for my 27 foot boat at Littlehampton, without any explanation of where the money goes, or justification for the increase. I wonder oif this level of charge is similar to elsewhere?

Regards

John
 
Ours was (I think) £88 for a 35 ftr in Chichester, that is justified as Chi Harbour is an AofONB, needing much maintenance.

But £144 for 27 ft on the Arun?????? You didnt fill the form in wrong, puting down 27mtrs did you?
 
Blimey and I thought I was hard done by at £50 !! Chichester.

S*d that ..... Littlehampton is definitely OFF my books !!
 
Think I pay £55 / year for a 31 ft cat (its added to my marina dues hence the doubt). However, this covers use of all harbours and piers in Orkney not just home port of Stromness.
 
£73.50 (inc VAT) for an allocated area of mud at Chalkwell, under Southend Borough Council, where you dig your own root, supply and maintain your own chain and get about 2.5 - 3 hours water either side of HW.
Bait diggers holes, where your Centaur disappears up to the hull in them, at no extra charge or penalty /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif
Now Southend's famous pier's off limits again (fire no. 4) and we've got nowhere to pick up people who want to come sailing without taking them out in the dinghy from an open beach.
 
HI, I used to keep my 36ft yacht in littlehampton, but after receiving a large bill for dues I went to the harbour master to find out what they where used for. I was told it was used for such things as dredging, nav lights also for enforcing speed limits etc. HA HA!! and paying him to sit in his office with his assistant and do very little towards actually doing their jobs..... but he did have time to motor past me in the harbour launch with a child at the wheel!!! ( Assume its son or grand son...) I have a photo of it somewhere!!!! The dredging never happened on the side of the river I was on either.....
 
We used to be there, but gave up after the shingle bar built up and access was restricted. Perhaps you should pro-rata the dues down to the amount of time you can actually get in and out!
 
Fight Back Then.

Harbour Dues! Don't get me started.

Okay then.

I am currently challenging Caernarfon Harbour Trust over its harbour dues. Mine have just gone up from £96.94 to £100.82 for a 21 foot boat.

I am not sure, but I think this is the highest charge I can find and is ridculous when the same boat can sit in a rip off southern harbour like Chichester for £26.30.

I have challenge CHT on serveral points and am using this consultative document by the Department for Transport as my starting point.

I have asked them:

To provide copies, or make copies of recent accounts available for inspection.
To explain why they charge harbour dues to boats berthed in a freshwater dock and tidal pool shown to be outside their declared area of operation.
To explain why they have consistently refused to allow a representative of one third of the leisure boat owners, who pay harbour dues, to be allowed on the board of trustees.
To confirm if they are using data from a computer system contrary to the Data Protection Act to track and bill boat owners.
To explain why 'off station' or missing buoys take so long to be replaced.
Have sold their maintenance boat. If so, how they are going to service the twenty to thirty buoys.
.
My next letter to them will start, "I cannot believe your arrogance in thinking that you can ignore my requests for information", when the Department for Transport's reccommendations clearly state that Harbour Trust:

<span style="color:blue"> Accountability

24. Accountability of the trust sector is a key issue underpinning concerns within the rest of the industry. Whilst many operations can be viewed in a very positive light, the review has provided little evidence to dispel concerns over the general issues of accountability. Very few trust port boards compare favourably to accepted commercial and Governmental benchmarks of good practice in this area. </span>

I have many more questions to ask CHT, not least whether it is true they have considerable property holdings, including in London and that they make over £120,000 a year from a car park in Caernarfon.

With all this money coming in, why do they need to charge leisure boat owners so much for around thirty buoys.

There are around 90 harbour trusts in the UK, but I am interested in collecting details of the charges of the 37 non fishery trusts.

If anyone berths in any of the following harbour trusts, please PM me with your charges - preferably the entire scale of charges. I think it is time harbour trusts were challenged as to their accountablility. The last time I asked this, I was met with considerable apathy from forum members, which tells me you are all too rich! /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

The list of Harbour Trusts is:

Berwick Harbour Commissioners
Blyth Harbour Commissioners
Brightlingsea Harbour Commissioners
Caernarfon Harbour Trustees
Cattewater Harbour Commissioners
Chichester Harbour Conservancy
Cowes Harbour Commissioners
Crouch Harbour Authority
Dart Harbour & Navigation Authority
Dover Harbour Board
Falmouth Harbour Commissioners
Fowey Harbour Commissioners
Gloucester Harbour Trustees
Great Yarmouth Port & Haven Commissioners
Harwich Haven Authority
Kings Lynn Conservancy Board
Lancaster Port Commissioners
Langstone Harbour Board
Littlehampton Harbour Board
Port of London Authority
Lymington Harbour Improvement Commissioners
Maldon Harbour Improvement Commissioners
Maryport Harbour Commissioners
Milford Haven Port Authority
Neath Harbour Commissioners (inc Briton Ferry)
Newport (Gwent) Harbour Commissioners
Orford Town Trustees
Padstow Harbour Commissioners
Poole Harbour Commissioners
Sandwich Port & Haven Commissioners
Shoreham Port Authority
Teignmouth Harbour Commissioners
Tyne Port Authority
Warkworth Harbour Commissioners
Whitehaven Harbour Commissioners
Yarmouth (Iow) Harbour Commissioners
Yealm Harbour Association
 
Re: 21ft in Poole = £41.66

18ft Windermere swinging mooring: £530
PLUS registration fee of £6.50 per metre (rising to £11.50 per metre in 2008)

Don't know what you're whingeing about. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
 
Re: 21ft in Poole = £41.66

Thanks. I used Chichester as my example how a trust cna have very pow charges.

Big_John, I have highjacked your thread. I will move my beef to a new post if you want.
 
What does that include?

In Christchurch I have to pay Bournemouth and W Hants Water £294 p.a. just for permission to keep my 21ft boat on a mooring. I have to provide and maintain the ground tackle etc.

It is a nice place though and ever so handy!
 
Re: 21ft in Poole = £41.66

What really gets up my nose is that the Crown Estates Levy is more than the Poole Harbour Commisoners Harbour Dues....... and unlike PHC, the Crown provides absolutely feck all for it.

Strange how this seemed to be introduced just after Lizzy agreed to pay income tax.
 
Re: 21ft in Poole = £41.66

She doesn't get anything from the Crown Estates.

Their website says, "We have two main objectives: to benefit the
taxpayer by paying all of our revenue surplus to the
Exchequer, and to enhance the value of the estate
and the income it generates."

It's just another tax for Gordon.
 
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