At Christmas, I reported that Kingsbridge, Lincombe and Batson were about to be dredged. Now they are all done, and very successfully too. The water-injection dredging turned out to be fully as clean as hoped: the mud from Kingsbridge dropped dutifully just outside Kingsbridge basin on the inside of the curves of the channel, and the mud from Lincombe and Batson swept outside the harbour, probably to Bolt Head. Natural England now use our harbour as an exemplar of environmental dredging and I see that Dartmouth has been using a similar system (but there all you have to do is stir up the mud and the river washes it away).
The only disappointment was in Batson Creek where dredging behind Normandy pontoon was aimed at increasing tidal access. But water injection dredging removes only silt and, as it turned out, the dredger reached clays and gravels much more quickly than expected and could not go any deeper. That is something that will have to be taken into account with the new pontoons, most probably by slightly adjusting their position.
Work is underway to keep the ICC going. The plan appears to be to divide the organisation so that the Egremont becomes a charity; a second part will do sail training; and a third becomes a members keelboat sailing club. In order to keep costs down they will operate only in peak season – rather than opening at Easter and having to keep on staff when there are few customers until the summer holidays. The hope is that making the Egremont a charity will enable it to attract funding from charitable trusts.
Improvements to South Pool pontoon look to be on course. One of the effects of the recession appears to be a drop in the take-up of moorings in the creeks – South Pool as well as Frogmore – so if you want a creek mooring, apply for it now: you never know, you might stand a chance.
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