Dear Members and Friends
Does £5 a month seem worth giving to keep Bembridge Harbour Trust running?
Yes? Click here to donate online (or scroll down to find standing order forms)
Not sure? Read on!
This is what Bembridge Harbour Trust delivers for you:
- Results. The work of BHT has made a huge difference. Without our efforts around £1 million due to Bembridge Harbour would by now have been signed away by the planning agreement connected with the new houses. We have concerns about another £1.5m which appears to have left the harbour’s accounts; if this was unlawfully extracted, we hope to get it back. And we are seeing a change in the behaviour of the harbour owners. After years of neglect and protestations of lack of money, 2020 has illustrated that, without building any new houses, Bembridge Harbour does generate enough money for dredging, installing new pontoons and refurbishing visitor facilities and offices. If only its incomes had been spent as they should have been over the last few years, we would be in an entirely different situation.
- Vigilance. We therefore have to keep up the pressure. We keep an unceasing watch on all aspects of harbour management. We have read in detail each of many applicant’s versions of the crucial S106 planning agreement, pointing out numerous attempts to extract commercial gain for the benefit of the developer at the direct expense of the Statutory Harbour Company. We monitor depth levels, dredging and maintenance, and point out what needs to be done for Bembridge Harbour to survive. We are your eyes and ears and voice – 365 days a year.
- Tenacity. The harbour owners are well resourced and in a powerful position to make life uncomfortable for harbour users who legitimately challenge them. Our efforts have made BHT trustees intensely unpopular with the harbour owners and their supporters, who have not hesitated to make their feelings known to us in highly personal terms. Despite this treatment, we have not given in but continued to stand up rationally and unemotionally for what is right for Bembridge Harbour and the community that depends on it.
- Visibility. BHT has therefore been a clear and constant voice calling for the harbour owners to do the right thing. As a result, we have a large body of members, many with deep knowledge of the harbour, and a distinguished group of patrons. We work constantly to ensure that all the relevant agencies, central and local government departments, news channels, elected representatives, local residents and visitors are aware of the problems facing Bembridge Harbour. The owners know that they cannot simply do as they like.
- Knowledge. The issues are extremely complex and the owners consistently do all they can to keep matters opaque and difficult to understand. Fortunately, your trustees have a huge range of deep expertise – marine geography, harbour management, planning legislation, communications, finance, local government to name a few – and all supported by professional advice where appropriate. At market rates, the hours freely given by your trustees would amount to a large sum of money. And we also know about and are representative of the community – residents and visitors, sailing clubs and businesses – many of whom are reluctant to voice their objections for fear of repercussions.
It does not cost very much to keep BHT running, but we need your support. Even a small monthly sum demonstrates that you are on our side and gives us heart to continue the struggle on your behalf.
If you can, please consider a monthly standing order. It is enormously helpful to us to know how much we can rely on each month to pay our bills.
YES – I WANT TO KEEP BHT RUNNING! HOW CAN I HELP?
- CLICK HERE to set up a regular payment online, with Gift Aid automatically included
- Set up a bank standing order with Gift Aid. Print this email, complete the forms at the bottom and send them to us at
Bembridge Harbour Trust
The Old Cottage
Upper Green Road
St Helens
Isle of Wight
PO33 1UQ
Still not sure? Read on!
Bembridge Harbour is choking to death. This started when the railway line was built across the old Harbour in 1874, but for many decades it had little impact on the useability of the Harbour. But at the current rate of siltation, and at the current rates of dredging and other management strategies, the Harbour will no longer be usable as we know it within a decade or two. The communities of Bembridge and St Helens will spiral into a dramatic decline, both economic and social: tourism income will go elsewhere, shops will close, house prices and investment in housing will stagnate, employment opportunities will dwindle. The vibrant, colourful place we love so well will turn into yet another British coastal community in long term decline.
Is this inevitable? No – with good management the Harbour can remain the economic and social cornerstone of local life for a good many more decades to come, and maybe even longer. But for that to happen, the owners of the Harbour must invest the revenues of the Harbour itself and any capital that can be realised from asset sales in keeping the Harbour sustainable. There are three ways to do this: dredge the channels in the Harbour to keep the tides flowing strongly enough to wash sand and silt out; maintain tidal defences such as the Bembridge Groyne to keep sand from entering in the first place; and extract sand from the entrance to the Harbour before it can be washed in (as the Bennett family did for decades until this year).
This may be expensive – but not when compared to the alternative. It is also not an act of philanthropic generosity which the Harbour owners are being asked for. It is simply the crystal clear legal obligation which they took on when they bought the Harbour, under the 1963 Bembridge Harbour Act: to spend all the income of the Harbour on its maintenance.
So why is this not happening? The owners have sought to blame years of inadequate maintenance and investment on Bembridge Harbour Trust. The fault is apparently ours, for objecting to the plans of their separate property company to develop land around the Harbour. If the Thorpes wish to use the Harbour as a justification for property development, then let the Harbour see some actual benefit. But their plans provide no material gain to the Harbour beyond replacing the existing toilets and offices; These are in the category of “ nice to have” but do not touch the essential work of dredging and sea defences. The owners predict that the new housing will not provide any funds for these.
Meanwhile BHT have amassed considerable evidence to suggest very strongly indeed that a substantial amount of the money which the Harbour is generating is not being spent as it should. Instead it is being diverted to other Thorpe companies and away from the Harbour. BHT simply asks the owners to demonstrate that they are fulfilling their legal obligation to use the income our Harbour generates to keep itself sustainable for future generations, in accordance with Government Guidance applying to Harbours. This they have repeatedly and obdurately refused to do, for no other reason than that the law does not compel them to disclose this information.
BHT have identified £1.5m that may already have left the Harbour on questionable grounds (i.e. on top of the likes of legitimate management and rental charges). When recovered and invested in line with the ‘63 Act this would undoubtedly guarantee a thriving port, benefitting the whole community and making a long term sustainable and perfectly reasonable return for its owners.
Meanwhile, with every single day that passes, the Harbour that underpins everything that we all cherish about Bembridge and St Helens is being allowed to choke up with sand and silt. We call on the Thorpes to publish and execute a clear and open plan to use Bembridge Harbour’s own money to save itself for future generations – before it is too late.
Bembridge Harbour Trust Standing Order Mandate
To Bank/Building Society (your bank) ___________________________
Address of bank _________________________________________________
Sort Code ____-____-____ Account Number __________________________
Your account Name ___________________________________________
Pay Bembridge Harbour Trust a/c 00950539 at Lloyds Bank plc sort code 30-97-21 the sum of (amount in words) _______________________________________ on receipt of this instruction and then MONTHLY on the ________ day of each month thereafter until further notice
Signed _____________________________Date _________________
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GIFT AID APPLICATION :
I want to Gift Aid my donation of £…………….. (and all future donations) to BEMBRIDGE HARBOUR TRUST until further notice.
I am a UK taxpayer and understand that if I pay less income Tax and/or Capital Gains Tax in the current tax year than the amount of Gift Aid claimed on all my donations it is my responsibility to pay any difference.
My Details:
Title …… First name or initial(s) …………………………………………………………
Surname …………………………………………………………………………………………..
Full Home address ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Post Code ………………………………… Date……………………………………………
The Trustees,
Chris Attrill, Jonathan Bacon, William Bland ( co-opted), Jeremy Gully (chair), Felix Hetherington (secretary), Phil Jordan (co-opted), Norman Marshall, John Raymond, Sara Smith.
For and on behalf of
Bembridge Harbour Trust