Agenda item

To submit a report by the Maritime and Country Parks Officer.

The Maritime and Country Parks Officer guided members through the report and the following main points were highlighted:

·         That it was intended to extend/develop the website to include more maritime information;

·         That there were 140 annual moorings, compared to 157 in 2014, which reflected the broader economy;

·         That consideration would be given to the registration system and fees over the Winter;

·         In terms of the Marine Safety Code, the Senior Harbours Officer would review it before the appointed independent authority, Caernarfon Harbour, would audit it.  It was noted that the Code provided guidance and reassured the public that user safety was important to the Council;

·         That observations from members on the content of the Code would be appreciated;

·         That the service was eager to develop Performance Indicators in relation to the management of the harbours and that initial ideas or suggestions were invited from members;

·         That work had been done in response to one Notice to Mariners that was in force, namely installing a new bulb in the lantern of the Navigational Buoy.  There was one other notice in force because the light on the Madog Yacht Club pontoon was non-functioning and that the Council would be prepared to assist with the work;

·         That the Harbour Master’s secondment had been extended until to the end of October 2015 when the post would be reviewed; 

·         It was noted that the employment period of Harbour Assistants (Seasonal) had been extended to 31 December to ensure that it would be possible to respond to incidents and complete the maintenance programme of Porthmadog and Barmouth harbours.

·         That a wreck which was causing a hazard had been disposed of and that another two boats would be assessed before deciding whether or not a notice needed to be placed on the boats;

·         That damage had been caused to an electricity cable when extracting a yacht from the slipway – the incident had been reported to the HSE however no investigation had to be conducted.  It was noted that the need to undertake risk assessments before undertaking such work had been emphasised to staff;

·         That the Harbour's income situation at the end of the 2014-15 financial year was encouraging and that there had been an underspend of £29,276;

·         That it was anticipated that there would be an overspend of approximately £1,400 by the end of the current financial year; 

·         That an investment had been made in a new CCTV system for the harbour;

·         That the moorings had been inspected and that it was anticipated that there were costs of approximately £3,000 in relation to works required on them and it was hoped that the work would be completed before Christmas;

·         That it was intended to replace the Aberdyfi Harbour red diesel tank with the Harbour’s diesel tank in order to increase the storage capacity;

·         That a number of events had been held over the summer. It was intended to include a list of events for summer 2016 in the report submitted at the next meeting and he asked members to inform him of any events so that they could be included in the report.

The Senior Harbours Officer provided details on the maintenance work programme and members were asked to inform the service of any other required works. 

During the meeting, the Maritime and Country Parks Officer responded as follows to members’ observations:

·         That the Dwyfor Boat was being used to locate navigation aids; however, as the boat was coming to the end of its lifespan, options were being assessed in terms of undertaking the work in the future;

·         That Welsh Water would be informed that their buoy in Cricieth was not in the correct location and possibly the work could be undertaken when a monitoring tool would be installed on the Cricieth Investigating Buoy to measure levels following a Notice to Mariners;

·         That he would raise the matter in terms of the regulations of paying the Assistants’ first salary with the appropriate officers;

·         In terms of recruitment, numerous applications were received from individuals who had just left college when the commencement date of the assistant post was at the beginning of June, but that fewer were received when the post commenced at the beginning of April. It was noted that the Council’s arrangements were followed in terms of recruiting individuals and that the job advertisement methods would be considered;

·         That he would inform members once a decision would be made in terms of the Harbour Master's post;

·         That the remit of the Consultative Committee had changed in terms of beaches but that the relevant information was available for members and that he would be willing to attend other meetings to discuss the beach issues;

·         That the response of the Beach Assistants to an incident at sea where the Coastguard and RNLI had been called was completely unacceptable and he asked the RNLI representative to inform him of the details;

·         In relation to an individual residing on a boat on the slipway, the individual intended to move soon after the boat had been repaired.  Consideration would be given to other possible sites to move the boat off the slipway and members were asked to report on any further incidents involving the individual.