Fees in and around Bristol Harbour could increase again as council bosses say the docks’ budget must start breaking even. Bristol City Council is hoping to find an extra £1.7 million a year to make the harbour financially self-sufficient, under changes to how the docks are run.
The rules governing the harbour are a quarter of a century old and increasingly out of date. A new ‘harbour revision order’ will bring how the council runs the harbour up to national standards for best practice, as well as ringfence its income and try to balance the books.
Mooring fees for boaters were already increased earlier this year, and questions were also raised about the cash made from property sold by the council around the Harbourside, during its regeneration. The cabinet voted to begin a long legal process of changing how the harbour is run during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, July 4.
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Labour deputy mayor Craig Cheney said: “This will help us to modernise the docks and put it on a self-sustaining and financially secure footing for the future. This is pressing the button on a process for how the council governs the harbour. We’re creating almost a separate authority that will have a ring-fenced account.”
The council will carry on paying from its general account to run the harbour for two more years, and then hopes the harbour account will break even and pay for itself. The harbour currently costs the council £1.7 million more to run than it takes in through income and fees.
According to a cabinet report, extra income could be sourced from car parks, commercial buildings, fee increases and changes to services. But one boater asked why the profit the council made from selling off property around the harbour wasn’t used to balance the books.
Ben Ewing, a houseboat resident, said: “If the entire historic harbour estate was included within the boundary, I wouldn’t have thought that there would be a financial deficit for the harbour estate. In fact, all the maintenance would have been paid for by profits from all of the property that’s been sold off by the council.”
