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Bristol Floating Harbour to undergo major review
A major review of how the city council runs Bristol’s Floating Harbour has been launched — but it will not be completed until July 2021.
The huge exercise, which aims to turn the loss-making waterway into a lucrative attraction, includes six months of public consultation with boat-owners, residents and quayside businesses, set to begin this December after cabinet approves a business case.
As previously reported, mooring fees are almost certain to rise, while a number of other money-making ideas are under consideration, such as increasing income from leisure activities.
is needed now More than ever
The review comes after councillors heard the harbour’s ageing infrastructure required significant investment for vital improvements.
The historic Floating Harbour is currently running at a loss to the council
Commercialisation director Penny Fell told resources scrutiny commission members on Wednesday, September 18: “The city council is blessed with a wide range of very notable historic assets.
“But we need to adopt a more cohesive approach in the way we manage them, maximise their potential for the city and, certainly in regard to the harbour, earn income.”
She said the review was not expected to be finished until July 2021 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Harbour Festival.
“The lengthy timeline is because this is an extremely complex matter with a whole range of stakeholders who all have very different agendas,” she said.
“We will consult effectively with colleagues internally, the public and partner stakeholders, but that will take time.
“We need to ensure we are paying attention to the right decisions made at the right levels as we take this review forward.
“The outcome will be a comprehensive strategy that allows us to manage the harbour effectively.”
Don Alexander, a Labour councillor for Avonmouth and Lawrence Weston, said: “It is so important that we get this right.
“We are the guardians of a number of notable historic assets.
“It’s not about making a lot of money, it’s about making sure we have the income to do justice to those.
“No one wants to see rotting, rusting or crumbling historic assets.”
Last month, cabinet agreed spending £885,000 on upgrading the harbour, including 45 new moorings, electronic pay points and improvements to showers and toilets.
Bristol City Council spent £1.6million maintaining the harbour in 2017/18 but recouped only £1.19million from mooring fees and other charges.
Fell, who was brought in last year to make the council more “business-like”, told commission members she was confident of reaching her target of making the authority £250,000 from various enterprises this financial year.
But she admitted a number of initiatives that could attract external funding if the local authority worked with outside groups faced deep-rooted problems among its own staff.
“We are not particularly good at tracking the pots of money we are bidding for,” she said.
“So I want to develop a database that tells us which services are pitching for what money and offer them a degree of expertise and understand whether or not their bids could be better written and achieve a better chance of being successful.”
She said she had recruited a grants and funding manager to make the process “less scary” for council employees who were not “commercially minded”.
“There is certainly a disjointed approach towards concerted working,” Fell added.
“Colleagues do tend to work in silos.
“They do not always understand there could be a service already within the council that’s able to deliver what they’re asking for.
“It’s a very straightforward way of ensuring we manage the resources we already have.
“There are colleagues in services across the council who have always done things a particular way and are resistant to doing things a different way.”
Adam Postans is a local democracy reporter for Bristol
Read more: Investment of close to £900k in Bristol’s 250-year-old Floating Harbour
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