Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

We, too, have concerns, particularly about Clause 75, for similar reasons to those of the noble Lord, Lord Taylor of Holbeach, but perhaps with a slightly different solution in mind. We share with him the concern about complexity and confusion in this clause. I refer briefly to my experience as a constituency MP. The large number of relatively small harbours in my constituency were managed very effectively by a largely volunteer management operation of harbour commissioners, often with only one or two employees. My concern is that, under the regime that we are setting out here, the complexity involved will not produce the one-stop shop to which the noble Lord, Lord Taylor of Holbeach, referred. Indeed, there still seems to be some degree of potential duplication and confusion with the Harbours Act. To illustrate the way in which the management of relatively small harbours is at the moment extremely effectively and flexibly undertaken, I recall an occasion when a film company wanted to continue the effective series "Doc Martin" which I am sure many noble Lords enjoyed. It was filmed in Port Isaac, the most beautiful little harbour in the whole of the western world. There was a slight problem because the harbour commissioners had long been seeking to strengthen the harbour wall and had obtained from the ministry then responsible, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the appropriate grant after a long and bitter lobby. Because of the way films are produced, there was a danger that the wall would go up and down in the background during the series, so I spent some time negotiating between the film company and the harbour commissioners. Eventually a sum was advanced, the harbour commissioners put off the work until the following autumn, the summer’s filming went forward without any hitch and the result was delightful. My point is that often the smaller harbours need a simple administrative system to cope with this sort of thing. If the MMO is going to represent a genuine one-stop shop and the provisions of the Harbours Act are not going to apply, let us be open about it. We share the concerns of the noble Lord, Lord Taylor of Holbeach, and we look forward to the Minister’s response. In a sense we, too, are probing, but perhaps from a slightly different direction.