Annual reports for Newport Harbour and Ventnor Haven will be going to the Cabinet on Tuesday next week (8th January 2013) where officers will be seeking approval of the reports before they are sent to the Department of Transport.
As the Isle of Wight council is the official Harbour Authority for both locations, legislation requires them to submit the Reports to the Government department.
£100k+ losses at Ventnor Haven
The report for Ventnor Haven shows a turnover of £12,000 in 2011/12, but operating costs of £110,000, resulting in a net loss of £101,000.
The operating costs are broken down as ‘Supplies and Services’ totalling £81,000 and ‘Depreciation’ listed at £29,000.
Services supplied by Cheetah Marine
Cheetah Marine hold the current contract (which runs until August 2014) to manage the Haven. Their contractual duties include:
- To provide a day to day supervision service at Ventnor haven in a safe and efficient manner.
- To collect dues from craft using the haven and the adjacent moorings in accordance with the schedule of charges.
- To work with the Isle of Wight Council to develop the haven and expand the range of facilities and services offered to both visitors and local users.
- To inspect all mooring chains on a weekly basis and renew when necessary.
- To clean the slipway, walkway and the pontoons weekly or more frequently.
- To remove all debris from the Haven and the surrounding areas daily.
The terms of the contract were varied last year to additionally include for the removal of sea
weed at Ventnor Haven.
Trying to understand where the money goes
To try and understand the £81k charged for ‘Supplies and Services’ we went to our Armchair Auditor site, which shows all of the Isle of Wight council’s spending data over £500, but in a far easier to query form than the spreadsheets they issue it in (*Big thanks* going out to WightGeek again for his great work on the system!).
The council’s own published figures for the Ventnor Haven costs don’t reflect this, showing £54,109.08 instead.
Going directly to the money that the council has paid to Cheetah Marine over the 2011-12 period shows £89,101.75. In excess of the council’s £81k figure in the report, but closer. Currently unexplained is why payments are split between two costs centres – Ventnor Haven General (understandable) and Coastal Capital Schemes.
The currently available council spending data for the period 2012-13 shows that since then Cheetah Marine been paid £6,048.33 a month in connection to the council’s ‘Ventnor Haven General’ account.
We’ll get in touch with IWC to see if they can throw some light on this.
Ventnor Haven income
The income is broken down to ‘Moorings’ of £3,000 and ‘Rental Income’ of £9,000. Geoff Blake holds a 125 year lease on part of the Haven where he runs a well-regarded fishery and catering outlet.
Newport Harbour
Newport Harbour by comparison shows only losses of £4,000.
In 2011/12 Newport Harbour had a turnover of £193,000, but operating costs were just £167,000. With other expenses of £30,000 this leaves a net loss of £4,000.
The full reports are embedded below for your convenience.
Image: © Isle of Wight Council
