One of the new features of the upgraded Whitestrand pontoon is that it has two 17-metre berths. From 1700hrs, when the ferries have finished for the day, these berths become available for overnight use by yachts until 0800hrs. This will be particularly welcome, for instance, to anyone with reduced mobility. The mild January weather means that these berths have already been used. Whatever next, mooring alongside in Salcombe!
January has also seen the new showers get planning permission. The public lavatories at Whitestrand will be extended slightly outwards and the plan is to have everything finished by Easter. This will be the end of an astonishingly long battle ̶ by all accounts it has taken around 20 years ̶ but it is so important for harbours to be able to provide basic amenities like showers. It is also likely that there will be an on-the-water provision service by then too.
The Harbour has a performance management system which comes up with smiley or sad faces, depending on what has happened. Sometimes the sad face is truly understandable ̶ like the fatality off Saltstone in November, after someone fell out of an ICC Soling. Sometimes, however, the sad face can cut both ways: the number of speeding offences detected this year has increased again (sad face) but I suspect that is a good thing, or at least, the detection of the speeding is a good thing. Also, the number of reports of minor collisions has increased significantly (sad face), presumably as the result of concerted efforts to try to get people who bump into moored boats to report this to the Harbour Office.
Our efforts on maintaining the bathing water quality are paying off and South Sands should have a Blue Flag for a second year running – remember that the last time South Sands won the Blue Flag it lost it after only a year. However, this business is a bit like a roller-coaster. South West Water introduced a new automatic notification procedure for sewage overflows from Malborough which was all trendy and modern, and members of the public can even receive these notifications on their mobile phones. This is excellent for openness, although alarming when notifications pour through almost on a daily basis. But then it transpires that most of the notifications are false alarms due to problems with the high technology. As long as we can keep the Blue Flag flying …
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.