Why I objected to the plans for the new Whitby Maritime Hub - Yorkshire Post Letters

It looks like the new Whitby Maritime Hub planning is done and dusted. I was one of the 59 objectors. I was told I could speak at the meeting of the Strategic Planning Committee on August 13, 2024, where it was passed, but only if I was the first to ask.

I am 80 years old and have a long history of working around the harbour but I am still left with a lot of questions. Why should the harbour master and his staff be moved into the new hub?

Their present harbour office was built and designed for them and ran efficiently for many years, when we had a busy harbour, commercial shipping and a fleet of big fishing boats. but many of those have been decommissioned or cut up or moved to other ports.

It operated the Dredger Esk. The deputy harbour master took the dredger to relieve the Captain for his time off. Presently the dredger has stood for many many months and has in the last few years cost many hundreds of thousands of pounds through mismanagement and done very little work.

We had a thriving cargo trade with up to five ships a day in the port. The harbour had its pilots, often the Harbour master or his deputy. The ships stopped coming in 2003 and the decision was made that we were a tourist town and the pilotage was stopped about three years ago.

I think most of the people who made this decision won't know much about the harbour and may believe what they read on the council's harbour website. It says, as an independent port we can offer first-class handling equipment and a committed workforce, the council can handle and unload two-three thousand ton DWT ships simultaneously. with cargoes like Steel products, Grain, Timber, and bagged fertiliser and our facilities allow us to handle other products when required.

They may be taken in with this but it has not happened since the last load of timber was shipped out in 2003. The planning application suggests that the Wharf handles cargo. I believe this to be untrue.

The same website suggests that regarding harbour pollution, vessels in Whitby Harbour are prohibited from emptying their toilets and other polluted water (from sinks etc) into the harbour, while in the harbour jurisdiction, it says the measure is designed to help protect the water quality within our areas and make our seas cleaner for both humans and wildlife.

This area is one and a half miles offshore from the end of the piers and up the river Esk to the weir at Ruswarp. As there is only one public toilet for residents, visitors and boat owners on the East side of Whitby it is a difficult ask.

My other comment was regarding parking, the plans show the loss of 56 car parking spaces but no thought has been given to the 40 parking spaces lost by the other government levelling up project to form a roundabout on the east side of the town centre. Whitby Town Council suggest they will just have to be moved to another part of the town. What a stupid comment. North Yorkshire councillors who don't know Whitby, might believe them but I would ask them to say where this new car park for the 96 could go in the centre of town, where parking is at a premium.

The first plans for the hub showed it was offered to operators to run by Scarborough Borough Council but they refused saying they had concerns about the financial risks and unpredictable nature of the current economic climate, So North Yorkshire Council have installed the harbour master and staff. They will leave their offices without a good reason and take on the risks that go with running this new building.