Attempt to limit mooring fee hike fails by a vote

Saturday 16 December 2023

Mooring fees for boat owners will increase above inflation next spring after an attempt to reduce the increases narrowly failed in the States.

The States Trading Supervisory Board will increase fees based on the size of vessels by between 12% and 45%, but won’t proceed with continued annual hikes for the following two years pending further consultation.

It had wanted increases in fees on a sliding scale up to 150% plus inflation up to 2027 to eliminate the need for taxpayer funding to support and invest in associated infrastructure.

Maritime associations including boat owners and marine traders proposed a 10% compromise hike after lobbying strongly against the plans and criticising losses at the airport being covered by marina users.

A group of deputies, self-named the Moorings Group, had attempted to stop the STSB’s plan but it was defeated in the States by 17 votes to 16. Four States members didn’t vote, while three others were absent.

Deputy Peter Roffey, President of the States Trading Supervisory Board, told the Assembly the pandemic brought devastating impacts to the ports’ finances, wiping out its savings fund with passenger numbers still yet to return to pre-covid levels.

Even at 2019 levels it represented “at best a marginal business”, he said, with the ports forecast to be £30m in the red at the end of the current financial year. 

There’s also a “daunting” backlog of capital investment needed at the ports, estimated to be some £60m over the next decade, Deputy Roffey added.

“Vital investment at the ports is needed,” he said, insisting that only those with the broadest shoulder - and therefore biggest boats - would feel the worst pinch.

Pictured: Deputy Peter Roffey defended the consolidation of Guernsey Ports' management structure. 

Marina fees in Guernsey are low comparatively, and with a long waiting list for berths he doubted that any boaters who exit the market would translate into a net loss for the States, Deputy Roffey said.

He questioned why many critical deputies made less noise about the 19% hike in commercial charges being proposed by Condor: “Is it just deputies responding to the loudest voices?”

The debate was marked with accusations that boat owners would be unfairly penalised, and that Guernsey Ports hasn’t got its own house in order first.

Deputy Marc Leadbeater said ports managers themselves had admitted to him that the department is not being run efficiently enough, while Deputy Sasha Kazantseva-Miller called for a full strategic review of the harbours before fees are hiked.

She and others also called for more commercialisation of States companies, with others criticising unfair targeting of the boating community and “island traditions”.

Deputy St Pier, who led the charge for an annulment to the hikes, said the STSB’s own commissioned research noted that increasing fees was troublesome due to comparatively poor facilities provided at the island’s marinas.

He similarly argued that efficiencies at Guernsey Ports should be investigated first.

Those who supported the STSB’s position argued more revenue needs to be raised to pay for a huge infrastructure bill at the harbours and fund improvements, which ought to come from the user and not the general taxpayer.

Deputy Roffey rebuffed by saying the States had ordered public companies to run on a more commercial basis, and this was a way to achieve that.

The STSB has no qualms about changing how companies are administered to make them more commercial, he added, and that initial consultancy advice had advised against splitting out the management of the airport and harbours to avoid duplication and drive up costs.

You can view the voting record HERE.