Much of the last Harbour Board was taken up with byelaws and the potential implications of the zippilly-entitled Marine Navigation (No. 2) Bill. I’m not sure whether this is really exciting stuff, but let’s try to get just a little excited for a few moments.
This Bill is a Private Member’s Bill currently going through the Parliamentary process. Its Third and final Reading is scheduled for 24 April so, although many Private Member’s Bills fall by the wayside, this one stands a good chance. The Bill, which has the support of the British Ports Association, mostly amends the powers of Harbour Authorities.
If the Bill passes into law, one of its main effects will be to replace harbour byelaws with “Harbour Directions” which have the same effect, but will be much easier to make as they won’t need clearance from the Dept for Transport. The current procedure for ratifying byelaws is protracted and cumbersome – which may explain why Salcombe is the only harbour to have changed its byelaws in the last five years.
An example might help: for some years now the Harbour has established a ‘dinghy-free’ fairway on the north-west side past the yacht club and the Salcombe Harbour Hotel. Dinghies which are racing are not allowed into this fairway, to leave it free for vessels to enter and leave the harbour without becoming entangled in racing boats. In order to establish the fairway, a local Notice to Mariners is issued but these expire after a year so have to be repeatedly re-issued: if the Harbour Authority gains the power to make Harbour Directions, the fairway could be set up once and for all and then appear on charts and feature in the little books of Harbour Directions which will replace the current byelaw booklet.
The Bill would also allow the Harbour to clear its short back-log of proposed byelaws – forbidding cruising boats greater than 7m sailing between the Salcombe Harbour Hotel and the Saltstone, or windsurfers in the main fairway, in July and August; and forbidding scrubbing where the foulings would pollute the harbour. I might add that, whilst the penalty for infringing the current byelaws is a maximum fine of £500 or £1000, under the Bill the maximum fine for breach of a Harbour Direction rises to £2500. Take care and be warned!
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