A grim future for Littlehampton Harbour.

[Steve Stamper]

Hi, I'm on the junge drums so please listen up and help if you can.

A local boater has posted the minutes of Littlehamptons last Harbour Board meeting on Pontoontalk.

You want to use that harbour?

If I have read them right ,their 'EXIT STRATEGY' may well leave it unavigable in the future if some of the parties at that meeting get their way.

This is not Rye Harbour and conveniently, by the time the consultancy document proved wrong by the harbour revertingto its former delta entrance again everyone will have disbanded and we will have lost a well located harbour.

Please read the post and if you have a point or method of raising the profile of this matter that would help to stop the parties involved from dumping their obligations to maintenance then please let me have them.

It would appear some dont see the harbour as being a vitally important part of Littlehamptons future. NEVER MIND US!


Thanks for reading this and I hope you will contribute.

Steve

[Richard B]

Steve,
Thanks for posting the information.

As I understand it, there are potential future problems with the River Arun and the harbour defences?

Could someone summarise the situation and give details of how the harbour maintenance is currently funded?

It would be a great pity to lose this facility as small craft making a passage between Brighton and the Solent would lose a safe haven along the way.

[Alice]

[Steve Stamper]

Last years income / expenditure accounts are here:-http://www.littlehampton.org.uk/accounts2005.pdf Page 10 shows the income versus expenditure for last year.

Basically it used to get £1200 per piloted operation but the big gravel boats dont come in any more.

WSCC are looking to escape there obligation to funding and had hoped that an independant trust report would justify an exit strategy to dump and run from the port offering a nature reserve instead inplace of a harbour.


To return to 'a natural state' and the area become a large nature park

with varied leisure use but

not necessarily boating


When and where was anyone ever allowed to powerboat in a nature reserve.

As a natural mouth it was a delta with several small outlets, thats why they trained the river with walls to encourage it to run fast and deep.

If not maintained it will revert to a nature reserve again.

[Richard B]

OK - so the commercial revenue (from the gravel ships) has disappeared, and West Sussex County Council want to avoid the maintenance expenditure by designating the area as a nature reserve, which would probably mean the loss of the harbour as we know it?

[Steve Stamper]

Here are the closing comments which I'm sure you've alread read but...

WSCC is to seek a legal opinion on the requirement of the Board to maintain
the harbour and the legal status of the Board.

(The Arun Outfall act of 1927 puts the Board in place as an act of parliament.)

The request to conduct a study to provide either an Exit Strategy or
Alternative Strategy for the harbour is to be placed before the Area Investment Framework .

Currently, no organisation was able to identify any source of funding to assist
the Board in ensuring the future of the harbour.

[The Jackeens]

Originally Posted by Steve Stamper

If I have read them right ,their 'EXIT STRATEGY' may well leave it unavigable in the future if some of the parties at that meeting get their way.

Hi Steve,

Littlehampton is certainly a wonderful setting for lots of boating activity. The welcome Andre, Phil and all of you have shown us from the nearby Solent area has really helped us to participate in many lovely days out (including the River Cruise for which Andre got the 'Round The Bend Award' at the recent night out )

It does sound like there is an active pressure group from what you have said. The problem with little groups like this when they get a bee in their bonnet is that committees may give way to their tactics and suddenly something happens which the majority may not have wanted at all.

So your approach is right. Do raise awareness especially among like-minded peeps. Do take legal advice. And never give up. To paraphrase Edmund Burke a little :the easiest way for a small group to get their way is to have a silent majority!

Once you have investigated everything, keep us all posted and look forward to hearing if we can be of any more support.

Good Luck!

missus

[Rogue Wave]

[QUOTE=Steve Stamper]
Basically it used to get £1200 per piloted operation but the big gravel boats dont come in any more.

[/B]

The dredgers don't use the harbour anymore because the Harbourmaster wasnted to raise the costs so high that the company chose to shut down the yard after repeated requests to keep the costs down to 1200 which is dear anyway. They use the Facility at Hove instead which is considerable cheaper.

At the timeIt was felt that this was done on purpose by the harbour, the extracts from the report you quoted seem to support this theory

It strikes me that you should lobby to turn the Harbour into some form of Trust that is run by Both Boaters and Twitchers (Ornithologists) run on solar power and wind power you's get loads of grants then!

[Steve Stamper]

firstly,

Thank you for your support and interest.


Secondly ,,
The harbour "board" is made up of I think of eight other parties, who by act of parilament are forced to fund the harbour board.

Theres alot of conflict of interest. Just imagine a harbour baord NOT acting in your interest.

Upping the fees gets the big boats out and your now thru phase 1 of shutting the whole thing down and cutting your funding.

Hence I think WSCC'S comment (LG Item 43)

Further to that, alledgedly the commercial users representative comes from a company that doesnt have a commercial place in the harbour any more. So theres another vote gone.

Clearly things may be signed sealed and actioned behind closed doors, so its a matter of enlightening those with alternative interests that we are out there, and "yes we do care".

There are 2 we should do right now that can help turn the matter around before it gets to far away.

1, Riase the profile, ask people to read the Pontoonalk thread and this one.

2, Register our numbers.
Please leave a post either here or on pontoontalk expressing that
You have used the harbour.
The nature of your complaint.
and I'll collect them up.

Depending how strongly you feel;

1 Email Louise the Chichester west Conservative councillor, expressing your opinion on her idea for turning it into a nature park.Louise Goldsmith

2 Email the chairperson of WSCC expressing your concerns as to the councils suggestions at the last meeting of the Littlehampton Harbour board..Chairperson WSCC

Thanks again

Steve :-)

[hard1]

The last time I looked at Littlehampton, there was some commercial fishing boat activity there. Is this still the case? Do they have a lobby?