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From the Dover Express, 2000
By TERRY SUTTON
Yacht club protests to landlords.
A SENIOR member of Dover's Royal Cinque Ports Yacht Club has protested to
landlords Dover Harbour' Board claiming that the port authority's
property tenants are subsidising dock
users.
The club house, which occupies a central position on the sea front, pays
£15,500 a year rent.
The harbour board says this is about half the
independent rental valuation on the property.
Barry Sheppard has written to Board chairman Adam Broadbent following
the consultation meeting held with stakeholders last month.
That meeting
heard, that the Harbour Board had a policy of a .six to eight per cent
return on its port investments but that there was no such restriction on
its financial return on waterfront property.
Mr Sheppard, a Vice
chairman of the local Chamber of Commerce, believes this policy is flawed. He claims it will restrict the future development of the seafront.
He
says: "The opposing policies of running the port on 50 per cent of
general commercial rates of return while expecting maximum returns from
the property portfolio means that businesses are subsidising the
users of the port. The town is
being drained of opportunities."
He says the town and port should work
together and it was important the whole area should be improved for the common good.
He has sent a copy of his letter to John Prescott, deputy
prime minister, who has a hand in the appointment of members of
Dover Harbour Board.
Dover Harbour Board's property general manager Bill Fawcus, in response,
revealed that a court case is pending to work out an independent rental
valuation of the club's premises.
Mr Fawcus emphasised the court case was
not a bid to force the club to quit the premises, although the lease had
expired.
He said the current independent annual rental valuation on the
yacht club premises, as a club, was £33,000 but as offices
would be £40,000.
"We want to see the Royal Cinque Ports Yacht Club to continue and we have
made a number of suggestions to assist the club, including the accepted
offer of a £12,000 interest-free loan," said Mr Fawcus.
He also revealed that the club was seeking a further three years' agreement at the
existing rent which, he says, would, amount to a £50,000 subsidy over
the three years.
"But we can't continue to subsidise the club as we have
done,"
says Mr Fawcus.
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