Bristol Harbour boaters face ‘homelessness and financial ruin’ if proposed fee hike goes ahead

Bristol Harbour boat dwellers face ‘homelessness and financial ruin’ because of a proposed seven per cent hike in fees, a city council meeting has been told.

The local authority says it needs to increase charges by inflation plus five per cent from April for things like mooring on pontoons, operating ferry services, using tugs and barges, and lifting bridges to make the docks self-sustainable and pay for much-needed improvements.

It comes less than two years after a massive rise when some bills more than doubled, with annual tug licences going up a whopping 790 per cent from £280.85 to £2,500.

Boaters vented their anger at the latest planned hikes at a meeting of the council’s harbour committee, with many saying previous promises of upgrades to facilities had been broken and that this created mistrust.

In a written statement, Trevor Gay said: “These fees increases and policies don’t represent a small inconvenience on our lives but potentially have far reaching consequences – some of us are facing homelessness and financial ruin.”

Amanda Jones said the council was “eroding a marginalised community” with the rise in charges.

Lisa Clevely said: “Parking restrictions and a lack of meaningful consultation with boaters have created frustration and eroded trust.

“Fees have gone up tremendously, and there has also been suspicion of covert surveillance, particularly when accessing services and collecting electricity cards, which has added to the uneasy relationship between boaters and the authority.”

She said the harbour was at risk of losing its sense of community.

Several councillors on the committee shared boat dwellers’ concerns at the meeting on Tuesday 26 November.

Cllr Patrick McAllister (Green, Hotwells & Harbourside) said the feedback from a month-long stakeholder engagement showed boaters felt the high costs were causing hardship and that they feared the harbour would empty.

He said: “We are hearing from the harbour community how difficult their situation is and I’m very concerned the council is inadvertently doing quite severe damage to the long-term viability of the harbour.

“We need to listen to the people and businesses who use the harbour and take this feedback onboard and maybe have a rethink of some of what we are doing.

“Part of the lack of trust is that the increases have jumped up by very large amounts in the past and improvements have been promised and they haven’t happened.

“I hope we can rebuild that trust.”

Cllr Kye Dudd (Labour, Southmead) said inflationary rises of two per cent were fair but justifying the extra five per cent on top of that would depend on proposed improvements in the harbour business plan which was still being developed.

“We don’t have that in front of us today so I can’t lend my support to that increase without seeing what those improvements are for that increase,” he said.

“The extra five per cent will live or die on what the improvements are.

“I recognise the new scenario where the harbour is a ring-fenced entity, we need to be revenue neutral, we have a five-year plan to do that, but we also need to make sure we do that in a fair and balanced way so we are not just hitting the boating community.

“The easiest way to get income is from fees and charges but there are other levers we need to be pulling to make sure we generate enough commercial income and income from events and other activities.”

Cllr Ani Stafford-Townsend (Green, Central) said public forum statements to the committee highlighted the lack of trust from boaters who felt the council was in ‘opposition’ to them.

The councillor said: “We all care passionately about the harbour, they all care passionately about the harbour.

“It’s their livelihoods and their homes and it’s something that’s critical to all of Bristol.

“Yes, we are cash-strapped, but we shouldn’t be goodwill-strapped and there are lots of things we could be doing to oil the wheels of some of these processes a bit better and to show goodwill to meet them in the middle.”

Bristol City Council director of management of place Patsy Mellor said ring-fencing the harbour meant every penny of income would now be reinvested into it and that between £20m to £40m of improvements and maintenance were needed over the next five to 10 years.

She said: “The absolute fact is it’s not maintained, it’s falling down, and the reason it’s falling down is because there have been leases, rents, moorings, fees, that have gone way below commercial rents and that is why the harbour was being supported by the tune of £1.6million by Bristol council tax payers up until last year.

“The harbour has to be sustainable.

“We are looking at leases, concessions, events, car parking, at every single thing you can do to monetise the harbour to make it self-sufficient.

“We have hundreds of users in the harbour. The vast majority of them are unhappy.

“Unfortunately, when policies go against individuals, they will be unhappy but I can’t make all the people happy, I have to do what’s best for the city and the harbour as a whole.

“We are moving to a much more open and transparent way of working.”

Committee chairman Cllr Andrew Brown (Lib Dem, Hengrove & Whitchurch Park) said: “We want to get to a situation where we can be much more stable and predictable on fees and charges each year so people know what to expect in return for those.

“The reality is we work within the confines of budgetary pressures as we move from being subsidised by the council’s general fund to being self-sustainable in due course.

“But there is also a bit of chicken and egg because to provide the level of facilities and services that everybody wants, we need the resources to do that.

“So this is a step on the journey but we appreciate it’s a challenge for everyone concerned.”

In a reply to a public forum question, the council said the cost of mooring a 10-metre vessel with a live-aboard licence was currently £3,559 a year compared with about £23,840 for a Band A council tax property in a similar prime city centre location, comprising £21,000 rent, £1,640 council tax and £1,200 utility bills.

“Therefore, providing a mooring that is currently 85 per cent cheaper than a similar-sized property in the BS1 area still gives an excellent value for money to live within this area,” it said.

The fee increases, which need to be approved by the strategy and resources policy committee, include annual residential mooring from £355.90 to £380, pontoon mooring from £273.75 to £293 and winter mooring from £191.65 to £205, with all fees charged per metre.

Ferries will see their yearly charges rise from £1,095 to £1,171.65, and small boats with 12 passengers or fewer from £547.50 to £586.

The harbour covers 80 acres from the Cumberland Basin to Hanham Quay and is seven miles long.

Credit: Adam Postans, Local Democracy Reporting Service.