Council attitude to harbour baffles locals

Bewildered and baffled was the tone at the public annual meeting of Whitstable Harbour Board on Thursday night at St Alphege Infants School.

On one hand, the chairman Councillor Michael Dixey reported a projected profit at the end of this financial year of £126,800, which shows a steady increase over the last couple of years - and is a huge change from the losses made before the Harbour Board was established eight years ago.

On the other hand, he stated that it 'beggared belief' and was 'quite extraordinary' that in the light of this success, Canterbury City Council seemed to be on course to change the harbour management to give the council more control.

"If it ain't broke, why fix it?" was the almost unanimous view from a baffled and suspicious audience at last night's meeting, some of whom felt that the council was being quick to 'grab hold of' any success from Whitstable.

A Scrutiny Review has recommended to council that the board membership which is a mixture of councillors and non-councillors should be reduced, with fewer meetings, and that the harbour should continue to be managed directly by the council with a new operational group to comprise only two councillors and a senior officer - i.e. with no independent members.

An alternative option to set up an independent social enterprise company to lease the harbour from the council and manage it was rejected.

Although these decisions have yet to be ratified by the council, four of the five independent harbour board members have already resigned in protest.

At last night's public meeting, Peter Banbury of Whitstable Harbour Watch said no-one understood the reason for the Scrutiny Review's decision. Other speakers suggested it was political, which they feared meant it would get automatic approval when the full council meets in November.

Local people are invited to attend a meeting of Harbour Watch on Monday at 7.30pm at the Duke of Cumberland to express their views further.