Planning application to restrict access to the water at Harty Ferry – REJECTED!

Kent County Council has applied to “stop up” the road leading to the old ferry hard at Harty Ferry (Sheppey side) except for access by foot. This would make it impossible to launch small craft such as dinghies. It would be yet another loss of access to the water for boaters.

Tim Bell of the Isle of Sheppey Sailing Club says: Access to the water at Harty Ferry is vital for safety at this dangerous part of the Swale. This will affect all boat owners who want to use Harty Ferry in an emergency, and for the Isle of Sheppey Sailing Club for its coverage and safety of the Round the Island Race.

UPDATE: KCC’s Highway Department have now gone through the various comments/responses received as part of the consultation process. The council has decided not to proceed with the current stopping-up application and so the court hearing has been vacated..

Consultation on Chatham Docks redevelopment, Wed 29 June

Peel Land & Property are hosting two open events (one is past) to understand the local community’s opinions on their masterplan for the regeneration of Chatham Docks Industrial Estate.

Peel Land & Property is bringing forward an exciting vision for the regeneration of Chatham Docks Industrial Estate. They are hosting two open events to share this vision with the local community and understand feedback and opinions on their initial early masterplan design.

Peel L&P claim that the lock gates will cease to operate beyond 2025 and are currently working with the local authority and existing port tenants to find suitable relocation options. This timeline provides an opportunity to engage and listen to the community, local businesses, charities and wider stakeholders, ensuring that the vision for Chatham Docks Industrial Estate is aligned with what Medway needs to be: a place where people want to continue to live, work and play for generations to come.

Where: Unit 4, Ground floor, The Kell, Gillingham Gate Road, Gillingham, ME4 4SA (opposite the Waterfront UTC)

When: Wednesday 29 June, 10:00am -7:00pm

If you are unable to attend, you can provide feedback via the Chatham Waters website www.chathamwaters.co.uk

Do you have any old photos of the islands, marshes or piers?

Medway Council is in the process of creating a River Strategy which, once completed, will be instrumental in helping to address river user needs, monitor pollution, coastal erosion and secure future funding to protect and enhance river access locations and plan ecological improvements such as salt marsh preservation and creation. To help us understand the changing nature of the estuary and visual history of the river, we are seeking old photos of the following:

  • St Mary’s Island
  • Darnet Island
  • Hoo Salt Marsh
  • St Mary’s Island
  • Oakham Marsh
  • Burntwick Island
  • Greenborough Marsh
  • Rochester Pier
  • Sun Pier
  • Gillingham Pier

If you have any photos of these sites we would be very grateful if you could scan and send them to adam.taylor@medway.gov.uk or alternatively photos can be collected from your address, copies made and then returned to you.

This is a unique opportunity for river users to make the first contributions to the River Strategy. For any photos we use we will credit the person who provided them.

In the meantime, here are two photos: the farmhouse which once stood on Nor Marsh, taken in 1932, and Sun Pier taken in the 1960s, which we hope are of interest to MSBA members.

We look forward to hearing you. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.

Adam Taylor, Rivers & Paths Manager

PLA Harbour Revision Order Consultation

On 18 August the Marine Management Organisation started a 56-day consultation on the PLA’s application for a Harbour Revision Order (HRO). The PLA is seeking the HRO to update the provisions of the Port of London Act under which they operate, and they are required to promote the consultation along the length of their jurisdiction.

Among the miscellaneous changes are “modifying limitations on the exercise of the PLA’s powers in relation to the Medway approach and areas off Southend-on-Sea and Sheerness.”

For more information visit:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/port-of-london-authority-harbour-revision-order.

Your Brexit questions answered, 2 Oct

Howard Pridding (RYA Director of External Affairs) and Stuart Carruthers (RYA Cruising Manager) will give an online presentation from 7.30 pm on Friday 2 October, with opportunity for questions. Registration is required and attendance is free. We hope it will help to clarify things for boaters about 2021 and beyond.  Register at www.ryabrexitforum2020.eventbrite.co.uk

The online forum is in lieu of a face to face forum, which is now not possible following the latest government stipulations about meeting only in groups of 6. The forum is specifically being offered for boaters in the RYA London and SE region, but will be opened up to others if numbers permit. There is a limit of about 250.

Medway and Swale Heritage Harbours update

A joint initiative by the Maritime Heritage Trust (MHT) and National Historic Ships (NHS) Shipshape Network, with strong support from European Maritime Heritage (EMH), proposes that historic ports and harbours in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland become officially recognised as ‘Heritage Harbours’. The developing Heritage Harbours recognise the great value in sensitively developing their, often superb, historic buildings; waste land; mooring; and maintenance facilities for both local and visiting historic vessels and are identified within the NHS Shipshape Network regions.

MEDWAY HH1 – The proposal to designate Medway as the first British heritage harbour was presented to a meeting, of the local maritime heritage community and associated stakeholders at the Sun Pier House tea rooms on 10 December 2018. The meeting, at Sun Pier House, Chatham, was well attended by some forty enthusiastic representatives from the local historic vessels; the Medway Council; MHT Trustees; the Thames Sailing Barge community and representatives from Faversham. Medway Council have appointed a senior officer to represent the council on the Medway HH
forum group. We are in discussions with the directors of Sail Training International, with a view to Medway being a Tall Ships race port in 2025. This will be the main agenda item at the next Medway Heritage group meeting. The ‘Boat Shed’ and other historic buildings and wharves, which form part of the historic Sheerness naval dockyard, may lead to Sheerness becoming an integral part of Medway Heritage Harbour.

FAVERSHAM & OARE HH2 – Faversham & Oare Creeks Heritage (FOHHG)
have met regularly since early 2019 at Faversham Guildhall. Aims and objectives have been developed and considerable work in optimising balanced development and improvement of the creeks has already been carried out by group members. An exciting feature is that Kent County Council has continued the design work for the replacement Faversham upper creek bridge through the lockdown.

Royal Naval Sailing Association to be evicted from Chatham

RNSA members at the historic slipway. Photo Kent Online.

Despite the Royal Navy’s proud 400-year association with Chatham, the RNSA has been given its marching orders from its modest base at the Historic Dockyard to make way for yet another housing development. The Sea Cadets and Sea Scouts who share the slipway and shore facilities will also have to go.

Read more of this shocking story at Kent Online…

Kelly Tolhurst is new Maritime Minister

Kelly Tolhurst MP.

As part of the Cabinet reshuffle, the Prime Minister has appointed Kelly Tolhurst MP, a marine surveyor by trade, as the new Maritime Minister. Kelly is also the MP for Rochester and Strood. She is also Patron of the MSBA, having been a long standing committee member.

Kelly became a councillor for Medway Council in 2011 and worked to get a River Medway strategy in place to encourage economic development and improve leisure use to replace declining commercial activity. One success was the restoration of Sun Pier, which now provides boat access to Chatham, below Rochester Bridge. Kelly is a marine surveyor and a keen Dragon racing sailor on the Medway, when time permits.

British Marine’s press release notes Kelly’s concerns about the MMO’s burdensome procedures for dredging of moorings on the Medway and effects on the leisure marine sector. With Mark Garnier MP she has set up an All-Parliamentary Party Group (APPG) for marine leisure