Welcome from The Harbour Master 2010

Wells Harbour had an extremely busy year in 2009 with visiting boat numbers at an all time high. The new fishermen’s facility was completed after a long and arduous journey, taking nearly five years to bring to fruition. The new facility should help sustain the fishing fleet and to improve the marketable catch for the fishermen in the times ahead.

We have signed a contract with SCIRA for their vessels to use Wells as an operations and maintenance base for the Sheringham Shoal windfarm. This will make the Harbour busier in the future and will provide much needed business and job opportunities for the area. It also means that Wells will be maintained as a working port for the future.

We are still committed to our long term plans for the East End which will provide better and improved facilities, with the addition of a new boat hoist and washdown facility and a secure building for maintenance of buoys, and storage of Harbour equipment which each year becomes be more important, as in 2009 we unfortunately experienced a couple of break-ins and thefts of Harbour equipment.

This year we will see more activity and boat movements in and around the Harbour and inevitably there will be change, but this does not have to be negative or to the detriment of other Harbour users. We are all very committed to moving forward and planning for the future of the Port and believe this can be achieved without spoiling this special place which all its users are passionate about.

Finally, I would like to wish the fishermen a fruitful year with their catches, the windfarm developers success in the construction of their project, other Harbour users an enjoyable year on the water and lastly a warm welcome to all visiting vessels.

Robert Smith
Harbour Master

A Message from the Chairman

The time has come round again for the Annual Report: it seems not that long ago since the last one. Perhaps that is a reflection on all that is happening in the harbour. It seems to get busier and busier.

A lot has happened in the past year, starting at the beginning of the season when all the boats went in to the water again with minimum fuss and maximum speed. The Annual Harbour Users’ Meeting went well but was rather dominated by one topic, unfortunately not allowing all users to get their questions aired about other points.

During the summer the application to be allowed to deepen the channel and create an area for pontoons proceeded slowly, backed up by a Scoping Report from Royal Haskoning. This all created a lot of work for the staff. The application was finally granted and, as I expect everyone knows, the works are now underway.

Unfortunately, at this stage we lost our very experienced Vice Chairman, Charlie Ward, when he was asked to be Project Manager by SCIRA. As there could have been potential for a conflict of interest, he felt that he had to step down from his position as a Commissioner. Once permission was granted, equipment was ordered, most particularly the dredger consisting of a powered barge and JCB. This was delivered and at the naming ceremony in October it was named the Kari Hege after the Stakeholder Manager of the Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm, Ms Kari Hege Mørk. We were pleased to welcome our Member of Parliament, Norman Lamb, who spoke enthusiastically about the project and the benefits it could bring not only locally but to the wider area.

We also purchased a new harbour launch Provider. This is bigger and more powerful than the present launch. It will make us more self-sufficient and we will not have to call on the RNLI tractor to move the larger buoys.

The last project, although Wells Harbour Commissioners were not a direct party involved, was the Shellfish Handling Facility. This was initiated by North Norfolk District Council and the Wells Fishermen’s Association. The Commissioners strongly supported it and continue to do so. The original project manager employed by the District Council moved away, so one of our members, Chris Rose, did most of the project management work. The project is now almost complete and had an opening ceremony on 11 December.

Overall the harbour did well again this year. The numbers of visiting boats was up on previous years yet again and there is still a small waiting list for moorings.

Looking forward to next season, the works will continue with the pontoons being put in place on Buxton’s Bight and the channel deepening should start. With the increase of work in the harbour, we have decided to employ a Harbour Administrator to take some of the burden off our Harbour Master, and to update our office systems so we can maintain our efficiency. I must thank all our staff for their hard work, expertise, good nature and sense of humour throughout the year.

I wish everyone a good year with fair winds, good weather and lots of fish!

Charles Ebrill