Following the monthly Board Meeting of Newlyn Pier & Harbour Commissioners (NP&HC), here is an update on the latest developments at the Port.

To improve the information flow between stakeholders and Newlyn Harbour, NP&HC has created an Operations Liaison Group, which will allow for better communication with fishers and other stakeholders at an operational level. This group will focus predominantly on harbour and market use, as well as other relevant areas, and will formulate a protocol for reporting maintenance issues and communicating when they have been resolved.

Board meetings will now take place on the first Friday of the month, instead of on the first Wednesday, to facilitate Commissioners who are fishers to attend more regularly.

NP&HC has also established a Strategy Group, which is tasked with drafting a strategic plan for the next five, ten and twenty years, and demonstrates the Commissioners’ ongoing commitment to upgrading facilities for harbour users.

This group will consider how best to take the Commissioners’ plans forward to develop and diversify the Newlyn Harbour Estate to maximise its potential for the benefit of the fishing industry and local community.

Commissioners have recently met with the Cornwall Maritime Trust to discuss how the Old Harbour, which is an integral part of Newlyn’s heritage that dates to the medieval period, can be sympathetically restored and returned to use.

“With the expertise in maritime heritage and conservation of the Cornwall Maritime Trust and West Cornwall Lugger Industry Trust, we look forward to collaborating with both organisations to bring this historic Grade 2* Listed asset back to life,” says NP&HC Chairman, Rob Wing. “The West Cornwall Lugger Industry Trust has submitted a grant application, in association with NP&HC and the Cornwall Maritime Trust, to the Community and Place category of the Community Levelling-up Programme, funded by the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund for a total project cost of around £100k, and we eagerly await the outcome.”

In terms of port operations, a further batch of nine new steel fender piles and timber fenders for vessels to lie on have now been installed on Mary Williams Quay.

In accordance with the Merchant Shipping (Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Co-operation Convention) Regulations 1998 and the Port Marine Safety Code, an oil spill exercise will be conducted at Newlyn Harbour between 8:30am and 4:30pm on Tuesday 21^st November to test the response to such an emergency.

This will involve staff deploying spill response equipment alongside environmental risk reduction specialists, Adler and Allan. Representatives from other external organisations will be in attendance to either observe or participate.

“Communications on VHF Ch12 during this simulation will be prefixed by the statement ‘for exercise’ and we aim to cause minimal disruption to harbour users,” explains Newlyn Harbour Master & CEO, Jonathan Poynter. “We kindly request that anyone not directly involved in this activity keeps clear of any area that we are conducting this exercise in for their safety.”