Fishermen's dismay as funds diverted to port upgrade

Fishermen in Thanet say they have been “pushed to one side, forgotten about and ignored” after money for new facilities was redirected to a plan to reopen a Kent port.

Thanet District Council (TDC) said it had no choice but to reallocate £3.5m slated for fishing upgrades to reopening Ramsgate's port due to government rules.

The move has brought the total budget for the Port of Ramsgate project to £7.2m.

Two of the major levelling-up projects in Ramsgate are the port works and upgrades to fishing facilities in the town.

In 2021, TDC received almost £20m from the government's Levelling-Up Fund for local regeneration projects, of which £9m was for the harbour.

The Port of Ramsgate in its current form was built from 1979, and ran passenger services from 1981–2013.

The ambitious scheme is intended to improve the infrastructure surrounding the berths, where the vessels are moored, to allow it to come back into use for passenger services to Europe.

At a meeting of TDC’s cabinet, members met to decide on rearranging the budget from the project, by diverting money intended for the fishing facilities plan, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Originally the plan was to create a site where the local fishing fleet could unload, freeze, store and process their catch at the harbour.

Council leader Cllr Rick Everitt said a contract to operate two of the berths will “be tendered on the open market next month”.

Some £3.5m from the fishing facilities upgrade programme was proposed to instead be redirected to the port and for a £4.5m grant to be given to any prospective operator of the port.

“It is not the case that this project has been downgraded in order to transfer the money elsewhere,” said Cllr Everitt.

“We could not take on ongoing costs on behalf of the fishermen which the council has no ability to meet.”

John Nichols, a committee member and a former chairman of the Thanet Fishermen’s Association, said the loss of funding was “extremely disappointing”.

“They’ve told us we’re going to get £100,000, which won’t even scratch the surface of the basic facilities,” he said.

The local fishing fleet comprises 13 vessels compared with 30 a decade ago, he added.

“We need these very basic facilities, we don’t need to be pushed to one side, forgotten about and ignored,” he said.

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