Working party to be set up to settle row
A working party will be set up to work through a dispute between South Port and upset berth owners at Bluff.
A meeting was held between the two parties at the port yesterday afternoon.
South Port chief executive Mark O’Connor did not allow The Southland Times to attend.
However, a person who was at the meeting said it was decided a working party would be set up so the parties could work through the issues.
Leisure boat owners berthed at Bluff became concerned after South Port infrastructure manager Frank O’Boyle wrote a letter to the ‘‘fishing community’’ on January 30 about a restructure of Bluff’s finger pier and town wharf.
The port had determined the finger piers, which have about 70 boats berthed beside them, including 30 leisure boats, would be nonoperational within two to five years if maintained in their current state.
An initial outlay of $350,000 was required to strengthen the piers, and a further $450,000 was needed to bring them up to a safe working standard, O’Boyle says in the letter.
An annual maintenance programme needed to be implemented to ensure the facility remained operational into the future.
As a result, South Port proposed to increase the rental charges for berth holders to $4000 a year. It is understood current charges are about $2700.
The letter also says an inspection of the west end of the town wharf established it was necessary to close it to the public and limit access to pedestrians, with $1 million required to provide vehicle access for fishing vessels.
Based on the figures, it was decided the west end of the town wharf was no longer viable and options for relocating vessels berthed on it should be considered.
The preferred location was the finger pier facility, which was at full capacity, meaning South Port needed to prioritise the facilities for commercial operators.
This meant about 30 private boat owners currently berthed at the piers were uncertain about their future accommodation for the boats.
Retired Bluff fisherman John Hawkless, whose leisure boat is berthed at the finger piers, is preparing for a fight.
Hawkless has had several fishing boats, and now his leisure boat, berthed at the same location at the finger piers for 42 years but now faces the prospect of losing the berth.
There was nowhere else in Bluff his leisure boat could be berthed, he said.
’’If they try and shift these boats out of here, they will have a battle on their hands.
‘‘If they think they have got a few whingers now, you wait and see what happens.’’
A person at yesterday’s meeting said South Port had made it clear in the meeting it had not made any final decisions yet.
There would be a mix of commercial and recreational boaties involved in the working party, alongside South Port representatives.
O’Connor declined to comment on the issue, other than to say: ‘‘We have got a commercial relationship with a number of parties and we will be speaking with them.’’