Other Visiting Ships

Folkestone Harbour is a statutory port set up by an Act of Parliament in 1807. It could be closed but this will take another Act of Parliament which cannot use a “de facto” argument of losing money for introducing it.

Statutory harbours get revenue from statutory dues and charges. Visiting ships pay dues and other income can be from goods or merchandise as well as craneage, stevedoring and rents.

Harbour authorities have considerable responsibilities and obligations to which they have to comply: -

In terms of obligations they must, for example, maintain all navigational aids within the designated area of the harbour and must also dredge waterways to recognised depths to avoid ships grounding. They are also responsible for all environmental issues as well as the upkeep of all quays and roadways (where there is an obligation to do so).

On the other side they can charge dues to ensure that the harbour does not make a loss. A well run port will try and attract business that would prevent it from making losses to balance its statutory obligations and return a profit for shareholders. If the charges are too high then business would not be attracted but the costs would continue to mount.

(Introduction taken from a presentation to "Port Net" by Richard Morton and John Winn in Hamburg 2006)

We believe that there is some reasonable passenger business to be obtained from ships other than ferries. These will fall into two main categories – short haul heritage vessels such as Balmoral, Medway Queen and Waverley and smaller cruise ships such as Hebridean Princess, Hurtigruten Line’s Fram and Swan Hellenic’s Minerva. These vessels might find that the ability to transfer passengers to and from rail services in a smaller port a commercial advantage. The number of calls might build over a few years to the order of 10 - 15 per annum.

If freight is offered then it would only be for vessels with a shallower draught that might be encouraged away from Dover or other near ports, carrying freight that can be transferred from ship to rail wagons (across the quay) might be offered rather than traffic that would transfer to HGVs as this is more widely available.