Time flies when you are having fun and I see that this is my 50th piece in this series. Over the years some themes recur; but I don’t recall having reported yet on a September Harbour Board as we are generally away.
September Harbour Boards are very much business meetings as they review the financial position of the Harbour, set the budget for the forthcoming year, and decide the level of harbour dues and charges. Depending on your enthusiasm for such matters, some may say that this would be a good time to be away.
The weather has meant that this summer could well turn out to be the best on record for the Harbour. The water taxi alone is likely to carry 22,000 passengers this year. Moreover, not least because the charges for visiting yachts have been frozen for six years and are likely to be frozen for a seventh, Salcombe has become good value. The Harbour’s finances are in good shape and, following the building of the Kingsbridge basin pontoons this coming January, there should be no need for significant new infrastructure for 10-15 years. That is a pretty satisfactory position and the Board even agreed to contribute to a SHDC “marine infrastructure reserve” to help the Council maintain its bits of the Harbour.
One of the more controversial issues that came up concerns the allocation of moorings. Hitherto the policy has been to give priority to local residents (full Council Tax payers) over second-home owners (reduced Council Tax payers), although this has not always worked that well in practice. But a by-product of everyone now being on 100% Council Tax is that it has become impossible to maintain this distinction reliably (and, therefore, lawfully): so it has had to go, at least until a legally watertight way can be found round the problem.
The Board also considered the implications of an application by Salcombe Harbour Hotel for a pontoon on vertical steels attached to its quayside, with a stop to prevent the pontoon touching the ground at low tide. The pontoon would be for the exclusive use of apartment owners (something the Board is against). And the Board took note of the fact that the Rivermaid is again up for sale, with a planning application to build flats on its Kingsbridge boatyard. This could be the end of the last boatyard which can lift out yachts, or be used as winter storage, in Kingsbridge.
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