Select a region
Plans to increase mooring fees by up to 45% could be overturned and replaced by a much smaller hike.
Seven deputies have lodged a Requete which will force another debate on mooring fees and the States Trading and Supervisory Board’s plan to increase them.
STSB was successful in getting through its preferred increase in fees in December last year. This is despite a group of deputies, self-named the Moorings Group, trying to stop the hike.
The Board is set to increase fees by 12% to 45% based on the size of vessel. At the time, Deputy Peter Roffey, President of STSB 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.
Despite this, there was strong lobbying against the proposals from those in the maritime industry.
A Requete, led by Deputy David de Lisle and signed by Deputies, Simon Vermeulen, John Dyke, Liam McKenna, Victoria Oliver, Chris Blin, and Adrian Gabirel, has now been submitted.
The group is proposing a reduction in the mooring fee increase to 10% across the board for one year from 1 April 2024. It also wants there to be a full consultation with “the leisure boat stakeholders, the Guernsey Boatowners Association and the Guernsey Marine Traders Association” before any further increases are decided.
The Requete states:
“[The] proposed increase was unprecedented, and was considered unjustified and unfair by the boat-owning community, who consider it risks undermining a fundamental element of Guernsey's way of life.
“A motion to annul the regulations made by STSB imposing the increase was narrowly defeated at the December 2023 meeting of the States of Deliberation, by 17 votes to 16. A number of Members were absent for the vote.”
Comments
Comments on this story express the views of the commentator only, not Bailiwick Publishing. We are unable to guarantee the accuracy of any of those comments.