Watchet marina faces action by bailiffs

The original consultants Beckett Rankine and the contractors Dean and Dyball failed to realise that if you halve the volume of the harbour, you halve the amount of water that sweeps in and out, taking the mud with it. The mud builds up, reducing the flow even more, so the mud builds up... Then the small river entering the harbour was diverted, reducing the flow patterns even more.

The contract with the marina company was 'loaded' with the mud clearing clause when the builders and West Somerset Council realised that the mud was building up even before the marina was functional.

The Environment Agency kicked up a fuss in the early days when it was suggested that the mud could be jetted out on a falling tide into the Channel, and at one stage they wanted the mud taken away in lorries, to prevent the adjacent beaches becoming muddy. As if the Bristol Channel isn't pretty gloopy with millions of tons of soil particles even at spring tides and with heavy floodwater from the Severn catchment area.

A big water jet barge would solve the problem but t seems the money goes on consultants and engineers rather than kit.

How Dean & Dyball ruled Watchet's waves | Construction News
 
sarabande said:
The original consultants Beckett Rankine and the contractors Dean and Dyball failed to realise that if you halve the volume of the harbour, you halve the amount of water that sweeps in and out, taking the mud with it. The mud builds up, reducing the flow even more, so the mud builds up... Then the small river entering the harbour was diverted, reducing the flow patterns even more.

The contract with the marina company was 'loaded' with the mud clearing clause when the builders and West Somerset Council realised that the mud was building up even before the marina was functional.

The Environment Agency kicked up a fuss in the early days when it was suggested that the mud could be jetted out on a falling tide into the Channel, and at one stage they wanted the mud taken away in lorries, to prevent the adjacent beaches becoming muddy. As if the Bristol Channel isn't pretty gloopy with millions of tons of soil particles even at spring tides and with heavy floodwater from the Severn catchment area.

A big water jet barge would solve the problem but t seems the money goes on consultants and engineers rather than kit.

How Dean & Dyball ruled Watchet's waves | Construction News
Click to expand...
 
Even before it was a marina it was a mud pit. Sad to see as the village and its location really are superb. Always enjoyed the times I went in there.
 
The River Medway in the middle of the towns has slowly been silting up over the past decade or two with depths reducing considerably.
Not only due to lack of dredging but the decline in commercial river traffic.
It was not helped by a deliberate and calculated political decision in the 1980s to move the transport of goods from water to road transport.
There is no money. You can sue the arse off who ever you like but it will merely come out of the taxpayers (your) pocket.
Yet another case of be careful what you wish for, you just might get it. ?
 
It seems to be a common problem, local councils seem to think bringing in expensive consultants will provide them with all the answers when in fact the consultants are working purely on theories without the local knowledge to back them up.
We had/have a similar 'consultancy' problem in that no-one bothered to ask the local harbour users when consultants came in with a plan, if they had web could have told then that putting a permanent sill in the entrance to our inner harbour would prevent the river scouring it and the mud would just build-up.
So what's happened, the inner harbour became an embarrassment silting up with foul smelling mud, it then cost a fortune to dredge as the Environment Agency deemed the mud toxic, and of course it will just silt up again because the sill is still there.
Unfortunately this 'consultancy' menace seems to pervade everywhere, rather than ask those who do the job or are actively involved in using the facilities managers, councils etc. all seem to think that outside consultants can provide all the answers.
 
An awful shame, we loved Watchet when we were based in the BC.

The construction news article sheds light on the funding.

Much of the funding for the £5 million Watchet Harbour Marina project has come from the EU and central government. However, Dean & Dyball Developments has contributed almost 15 per cent.

EU grant £1,896,500 Rural Challenge £1,000,000 Private sector £880,000 WSDC £755,026 English Partnerships £500,000 Somerset CC £80,000
 
Anything funded by the EU does tend to be keeping a few consultants supplied with chocolate hobnobs.
 
lw395 said:
Anything funded by the EU does tend to be keeping a few consultants supplied with chocolate hobnobs.
Click to expand...

Would you be happier if millions of public money was spent on projects on the say-so of Fred in the public bar, who doesn't carry professional indemnity insurance?

Do you think private sector projects don't employ consultants?

Clearly, a series of things haven't gone right with this project, but I don't believe they can all be laid at the door of either the EU funding (actually allocated by UK government, IIRC) or the consultants. It was a project of which I was highly sceptical even before it got off the ground, and not just on silting grounds.

It was buoyed up by a lot of wishful thinking on the part of the public sector (town, district, county and central government) and greed on the part of the private sector, which is about par for the course.
 
If you want the Marina to follow what the workers say you're going to have to club together buy them out and run the marina as a co-operative. Now... how many socialists do we have here?
 
More to the point, how many are prepared to put in all the hard work of keeping things working in the face of legislation that often seems specifically designed to prevent it?

The little boat yard/marina near my mooring is silting up. Dredging is forbidden because of worms or something, though what needs dredging is a tiny fraction of the acres of tidal mud, and it doesn't stop the Navy doing when it suits them. Rumour has it that the only thing keeping the approach open is that a couple of fishing boats drag chains when they go in and out.
 
Stemar said:
More to the point, how many are prepared to put in all the hard work of keeping things working in the face of legislation that often seems specifically designed to prevent it?

The little boat yard/marina near my mooring is silting up. Dredging is forbidden because of worms or something, though what needs dredging is a tiny fraction of the acres of tidal mud, and it doesn't stop the Navy doing when it suits them. Rumour has it that the only thing keeping the approach open is that a couple of fishing boats drag chains when they go in and out.
Click to expand...

We have a similar problem with 'worms' for years it has been proposed that the North pier should be extended by about quarter of a mile then curved South, this would not only protect theharbour from the violent surging we get in North Westerlies, but protect the town, a high percentage of which is at or just below sea level.
But it is constantly turned down because of the population of 'tube worms' just off the harbour entrance, if disturbed the b****y things would just move a little further up the coast.
 
Praxinoscope said:
It seems to be a common problem, local councils seem to think bringing in expensive consultants will provide them with all the answers when in fact the consultants are working purely on theories without the local knowledge to back them up.
Click to expand...
My daughter in law is a management consultant. I was recently chatting with her as to regards what she actually does. Most of which seemed to be telling companies who they can get rid of. I replied that surely they know this already. DIL responded that they indeed do but no one wants to take responsibility so they pay her big money to do it instead!
 
A consultant's job is to borrow your watch to tell you the time! Basically, I have yet to see a consultant's report that didn't back up the opinion of the knowledgeable users of whatever technology was being considered, except in one or two cases where the consultant had to earn their keep by doing a lot of research (this was in a situation where new regulations were coming into force, with wide ramifications for the organization I worked for - at one time we thought that the whole business plan of part of the organization might fall apart!)
 
AntarcticPilot said:
A consultant's job is to borrow your watch to tell you the time! Basically, I have yet to see a consultant's report that didn't back up the opinion of the knowledgeable users of whatever technology was being considered, except in one or two cases where the consultant had to earn their keep by doing a lot of research (this was in a situation where new regulations were coming into force, with wide ramifications for the organization I worked for - at one time we thought that the whole business plan of part of the organization might fall apart!)
Click to expand...

As a member of various railway consulting firms this has made my job much easier. Once the best option is decided NR (or whoever) know pretty well how much it will cost and how hard. To let them get funding and secure a time slot I only need to find evidence and do calculations to flesh out the picture for sponsors and planners.

The best one was my father as a member of British Aerospace being invited to go to Australia to see why Quantas planes on landing and take off practice were wearing out landing struts. As planes normal land every few hours and Quantas normally do longer runs it was fairly obvious to him that landing every 20 minutes after a go round to give 2nd pilot the experience will clap things out quicker than their service. He wrote the basic report from his hotel room and just collected statistics. He did however have a very nice time visiting and chatting to ex colleagues one of whom may even have recommended him for the job,
 
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