Exeter City Council, in its roles as port and harbour authority, is responsible for eleven miles of waterways, including the historic Exeter Ship Canal, from Blackaller Weir to a mile out to sea, as well as numerous buildings and miles of estuary land.
It must navigate relationships with a wide range of stakeholders including smaller harbours and quays, mooring associations, marine businesses, pubs, port premises tenants, fisheries, clubs and multifarious communities along the estuary’s length.
Waterways user groups, advocacy organisations and multi-stakeholder management bodies tasked with protecting the estuary, which is an internationally-important wildlife and habitats site, all also have a say.
In this special report we look at the council’s decision to pursue Port Marine Safety Code compliance following the failure of its attempt to pass on its responsibilities as harbour authority after negotiations with river users broke down over the imposition of licensing fees.
We revisit its appointment of a harbour master and marine staff to work towards code compliance, its creation of a harbour board to oversee operations and its decision to seek a Harbour Revision Order to consolidate and extend its powers to make and enforce waterways rules and levy harbour dues.
We consider the council’s attempts to divert attention away from the prospective imposition of new fees and charges on river and canal users, as well as tensions between their needs and its hopes that land essential to canal operations is redeveloped for flats.
We trace repeated attempts by harbour board members to raise widely-held concerns about the potential impact of new harbour dues, which waterways users say will put the viability of the estuary in jeopardy, and the council’s failure to address these concerns when it held an informal consultation on the draft order.
We look at the significant increase in harbour operations costs which followed its decision to pursue Port Marine Safety Code compliance, and how they and canal operations costs together came to close to £1 million in 2022-23, requiring a council waterways subsidy in excess of £750,000.
We also look at the capital costs the council has to bear along the length of the estuary, dramatically increasing its financial liabilities as port and harbour authority, and its quiet adoption of a new policy last year that waterways operations should be entirely subsidy-free.
We outline wider concerns around the weather’s impact on the estuary and the danger of waterways income falling just as expenditure rises still higher, and we review the recent statutory consultation on the council’s Harbour Revision Order proposals which has brought matters to a head.
We then consider the practical challenges of imposing new charges and the reasons why estuary boat owners, in particular, are concerned about the council demanding they pay excessive dues. We also survey the views of a wide range of waterways stakeholders on the council’s approach.
We ask why the council has not produced a business plan which assesses the feasibility of imposing new charges and the operational and capital spending needed to bring the services and facilities it offers up to scratch in the six years since it decided to pursue Port Marine Safety Code compliance.
We also outline the basis of an equitable solution to the problems the council has created, involving Exeter Canal & Quay Trust and a maritime revival strategy built on local volunteer efforts which lays out the quay and canal basin’s potential to become a leading inland heritage port at the head of an estuary that is otherwise at risk of significant decline.
