Call for talks on Plymouth fishing sector challenges
THE leader of Plymouth’s Labour group has written to the new Conservative leader of Plymouth City Council to ask for an urgent crossparty meeting with the city’s fishing community.
Cllr Tudor Evans said he wrote to the new council leader, Cllr Richard Bingley, immediately following his election to ask for a meeting to address a number of pressing issues in the city’s fishing sector, including the breakdown of the ice plant and uncompetitive fuel prices.
Cllr Evans said: “I hope Cllr Bingley will take up my invitation to wander down the quay with me and speak to fishermen about what is going on there. We don’t need the council press team to be there, just some face to face time with the people who are really struggling.
“There is a good track record of cross-party work helping Plymouth fishermen, I hope this can now restart.”
Cllr Evans cited a number of issues, including problems with the ice plant delivery system and rising fuel prices. He said that the ice plant failure has meant that, while ice can be delivered in bins and boxes to be lowered to boats, a mechanical failure on part of the delivery system means that it cannot be dispensed directly on to vessels heading to sea as normal.
He added: “There is real urgency to all of this and the anxiety being felt by fishermen is palpable. The ice plant breakdown once again brings into question if SHH [Sutton Harbour Holdings] has the ability or desire to run a thriving operation for Plymouth’s fishing industry.”
Last December, the Western Morning News’ sister website PlymouthLive reported how there were concerns about increasing charges for fishermen at Sutton Harbour.
Plymouth-based marine and fisheries consultant Terri Portman said that, during the 2020 lockdown and beyond, fishermen saw the values of their catches drop by 40% to 50% as their markets closed and hospitality shut. She also said that 2021 started with export problems caused by Brexit and reduced hospitality sales as more lockdowns were enforced.
She highlighted the 2020 ‘Fishing Without a Safety Net’ report by Seafarers, the maritime community charity, which revealed that most small-scale fishermen had little in the way of savings and not the financial resilience in their businesses.
In response, Sutton Harbour Group said that it provides 48 hours free mooring to vessels landing fish, arguing that “vessels landing fish in Sutton Harbour are offered 48 hours free mooring, and thereafter are charged as per the advertised Plymouth Fisheries tariff if they do not already pay mooring fees as local boats.”
However, local fisherman Brian Tapper said he believed the business practices of SHH need to be addressed as a matter of urgency.
Mr Tapper said: “At every engagement with the council over the past years, we have made these issues clear. I really don’t know why they have spent the past 12 months drawing up plans and deals with SHH without resolving these issues first.
“Cllr Nick Kelly [the previous council leader] and council officers came to speak to us last September. We told them again fuel and ice were an issue; six months on nothing has changed for the better, in fact it has got worse.
“We have been told SHH are going to drop fuel costs by a penny or so on April 1. The irony of the date is not lost on us.”