Agenda item

To receive updates from the Weymouth and Bridport & Lyme Regis Harbour Masters.

The Bridport and Lyme Regis Harbour Master delivered the updates for Bridport and Lyme Regis harbours. The most recent statistics for both harbours were provided, it was noted that they were broadly comparable with the previous year’s.

Both harbours had secured funding through the Fisheries and Seafood Scheme to support key equipment replacements; these funds would contribute towards the replacement of the quayside davits at Bridport and the fishermen’s crane at Lyme Regis. Flood barriers had been installed in Bridport

Recent storms had caused approximately 10,000 tonnes of material to be deposited within Bridport harbour, a crane was used to remove some of this material, in order to maintain access into the harbour. In Lyme Regis, storms washed material off of the beach and onto the Cobb and harbour, requiring contractors to remove the materials.

Further Water Injection Dredging trials had been commissioned, as it was determined that adverse weather conditions had impacted the previous trials in November.

An incident in Bridport was reported of a vessel sinking, the vessel was successfully refloated the same day by the harbour team.

In response to a question, the Harbour Master confirmed that the cost for refloating the vessel was borne by the vessel owner.

The Harbours Manager presented the update for Weymouth Harbour. He noted that there was increasing popularity for 6-month mooring lettings, while interest in large vessel berths remained strong.

Several storms had occurred over the winter period, however the harbour had not seen any major damage to infrastructure or vessels. The Christmas Day swim had been impacted by adverse weather conditions and the event was called off after it was clear that even experienced swimmers were struggling with the conditions.

13 incidents had occurred since the last meeting and there had been no oil spills in the harbour in the same period. Oil spill response exercises were planned for later in the year, to ensure training was up to date.

Planned harbour works included repairs to the Cosens Quay car park and the replacement of Stone Pier railings, due to some severe signs of rust in places, the work to replace the damaged railings was estimated to cost £90,000, which was a saving of £100,000 when compared to the full replacement of all the railings. An in depth structural assessment of the Sand Jetty was being commissioned to determine its structural integrity.

Notable upcoming events included the introduction of the Dorset Artisan Market, which would be coming to Weymouth harbour of three separate dates in Summer 2026 and the Dorset Seafood Festival, which would return as a free to attend event. The iQFoil World Championships were set to be hosted by the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy in September. The event would mark the first time the UK has hosted an Olympic-windsurfing world championship since 2009.

In response to members questions the Harbours Manager stated that the increasing popularity of 6-month mooring lettings was something which was being monitored in relation to the impact it may have on harbour revenue and that any 6-month agreement is purely limited to 6-months, there is no guarantee of the same berth after the 6 months end.

He also stated in response to a question about a large number of spam emails being sent to the harbour office, that IT colleagues had been consulted with and there was no risk of a security breach as the targeted email address was not connected to any secure information. They were currently working with the IT team on what steps to take going forward.

The committee noted the updates.