·         11^th August 2020 (attached)

·         17^th November 2020 (attached)

(Please telephone Corporate and Community Services to prepare a form for your signature before the meeting) Items must be re-declared when the item is called, and Councillors must leave the meeting if necessary)

Councillor Fowler

Councillor Campbell

All items – personal interest as was a member of Ilfracombe Yacht Club and a boat owner

All items – personal interest as worked on Lundy Island and occasionally for the Landmark Trust

·         The audit of both harbours was carried out on 5^th January 2021, virtually due to Covid-19 lockdown.  Present at the virtual meeting were: the Senior Engineer of North Devon Council, the Harbour Master, the clerk of Lynton and Lynmouth Town Council, the Designated Person and the Health and Safety Advisor

Ilfracombe - actions completed

·         Version three of the Marine Safety Management System now referenced procedures for how to deal with suspected alcohol and drugs misuse

·         The boats out had proceeded safely as planned

·         The Environment Agency had completed repointing work on the Harbour wall by the Royal Britannia Public House

·         New tie rails had been fitted to the East end of the first Landing and the second Landing

·         New top gates had all been fitted

Ilfracombe – risk management

·         An internal audit of the following topics was carried out this quarter:

(i)            Piloting, Towage and Bunkering – found a minor non-conformity: Bunkering Standard Operating Procedure required formal acceptance by the Harbour Board and then to be displayed on the North Devon Council website

(ii)          Licensing (Works, Tugs, Craft), Permitting (Diving and Hot Works) found a minor non-conformity: Standard Operating Procedure for Diving not available on the North Devon Council website

(iii)         Auditing: Internal and External, Plans and Reporting non-conformity found whereby no performance assessment of the Marine Safety Management System or Benchmarking was carried out

·         The Fender works at First Landing had been completed and extended on the inner-side of the kiosks allowing extra landing space

·         The removal of top and bottom chains along Quay Wall was also now complete

·         Tie off rails were to be fitted at Stone Bench which would provide another two spaces

·         All chains had been fitted along Quay Road and all boat users now had their own designated chains.  Two and a half tonnes of chains had been removed from the harbour as scrap

·         Self-closing gates to close off Stone Bench and Second Landing were due to be in place by the end of February 2021

Lynmouth – actions completed

·         The Marine Safety Management System document had now been amended for the non-conformities as picked up by APBmer during the external audit

Lynmouth – risk management

·         An internal audit of the following topics was carried out:

(i)            Piloting, Towage and Bunkering

(ii)          Licensing (Works, Tugs and Craft), Permitting (Diving and Hot Works)

(iii)         Dangerous Vessels and Dangerous Substances – non-conformity: no information available to visiting boast with regards to vessel traffic movement

·         The legal status of the Harbour was still ongoing and as such most of the internal audit matters did not apply

·         A galvanised hand rail was still to be fitted at the steps opposite the Rising Sun Pub, adverse weather conditions  ...  view the full minutes text for item 86.

·         Lynmouth Harbour had always been considered to be a Haven but they were made aware that they were a non-statutory harbour and were a marine asset of North Devon Council

·         There was a need for them to be represented on the Harbour Board

·         A lot of work had been carried out to rectify the non-compliance points found during the external audit by APBmer

·         Key Performance Indicators to report on were needed but had to be kept simple due to the lack of staff

·         The need for a licence and procedure policy for dredging depended on the outcome of the legal status review that was currently ongoing

·         Most of the non-compliance issues were administration related

·         Once all procedures had been drawn up they would be displayed on the North Devon website

·         The procedures would be placed on the North Devon website

·         This procedure covered commercial and individuals diving and would give a full record of permits issued and dates entered the water

·         It was a requirement under the Port Marine Safety Code for a Harbour to produce and publish a Marine Safety Plan which set out an overview of safety management and objectives of the Harbour for a three year period

·         This plan had previously been included as part of the Ilfracombe Business Plan which was updated annually.  Industry best practice dictated that the Marine Safety Plan was a stand-alone document

·         There had been short outages of the light at Stone Bench due to damage sustained to the Transformer box.  A hole had been punctured in the box causing the outage from fishermen casting off their fishing lines.  The box had now been replaced, and types of suitable meshing were being looked at to give a protective barrier whilst still allowing access

·         Trinity House had booked their inspection of both Ilfracombe and Lynmouth Harbours later on in February 2021

·         The second security committee meeting had been held in December 2020

·         An internal audit inspection had been held with Health and Safety Manager acting in her capacity as a certified Auditor with the findings reported to the Marine Resilience Security Division of the Department for Transport

·         The Harbour Master and her Deputy had both attended virtually the Plymouth annual table top exercise in relation to the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code (ISPS).  Although Ilfracombe was only classed as an ISPS harbour when Cruise ships were operating.

·         The application to the Maritime Fisheries Fund for the CCTV upgrade project had been successful.  The Harbour had been awarded 75% towards the cost of the project.

·         Adhoc security were the approved company who would carry out the installation of the new system which had night vision capability and would have a tannoy announcement system included as part of the works.  The whole system would be linked into the Barnstaple main hub where monitoring would be 24 hours a day. 

·         Due to social distancing requirements whereby more space was needed for pedestrians passing each other on the pavement.  Access difficulties were identified as caused by the placing of advertising ‘A’ boards on the pavements by businesses.  Following several near misses between pedestrians and vehicles along Quay Road and complaints received from visitors to the area it was the aspiration of the Town Council to rectify the problems.  Higher volumes of visitors in cars caused congestion along the road and it was expected visitor numbers would be just as high this coming summer 2021

·         Several solutions had been considered but rejected such as a traffic light system which would cause backlogs along St. James road

·         Traffic calming measures were to be trialled, this would mean the shortening of or complete removal of the loading bay areas along Quay Road, widening certain areas for passing and the use of placing large planters to make the space a shared space, for pedestrians and vehicles.  The creation of the shared spaces would give pedestrians safe points to step off the pavement to allow distancing for passers-by without stepping into the pathway of oncoming vehicles

·         There would be clear signage for cars making them more mindful of pedestrians and the blockades would reduce cars ability to speed down Quay Road

·         The blockades would be temporary to monitor how well the solution worked, if it was not working it could easily be removed elsewhere

·         If Traders were happy and the scheme worked it was hoped funding could be sought for more permanent structures for a longer term solution

·         The Harbour Master had been approached by a ferry operator using electric/diesel/hydrogen hybrid ferries to bring business to Ilfracombe as a Smart Port.  The Marine Business Technology Centre (MBTC) were in the process of applying for funds for constructing a marine digital platform suite using a 5G network.  The proposal was to digitally twin Ilfracombe Harbour with the Town to create a small smart port platform as part of the pioneering project first set up in Plymouth Sound.  An expression of interest was needed from Ilfracombe Harbour and the Harbour Master hoped that the Board members would support her in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 94.