A DEAL has been reached for Minehead Sailing and Watersports Club to reopen a year after Somerset Council forced its closure by imposing a 4,500 per cent increase in harbour slipway fees.
The volunteer-run not-for-profit club closed early in 2024 after more than 60 years when the bankrupty-threatened council revoked its charity concession.
The decision meant members each had to pay a £120 fee to use Minehead Harbour’s slipway, equating to a 4,500 per cent increase in costs, as the cash-strapped council desperately tried to raise income wherever it could.
The council refused to compromise on the new fees and rejected a counter offer from the club of £200 collectively for its membership, which would have meant a 66 per cent increase.
The club said it had no choice but to leave the harbour and cease operations immediately, and decried the absence of any notice or consultation by the unitary council.
Now, however, club secretary Debbie Allum told the Free Press the council had ‘finally taken a common sense approach’ and accepted an offer of £400 to allow the charity to use the slipway.
It means the sailing and watersports club will reopen on April 1.
The deal follows the council’s 2025-26 budget setting in which a flat fee of £400 for club members with non-motorised equipment was approved.
Somerset Cllrs Andy Hadley and Marcus Kravis, who is also a Minehead town councillor, both expressed their concerns about the continued crisis for the harbour charity.
Earlier, they had both also attended a council harbour management advisory committee meeting and spoken against the authority’s intention to increase fees again, with no resolution in sight to the dispute with the sailing and watersports club.
Sailing club officers also attended the advisory committee meeting and raised questions regarding a lack of consultation by the council and further fee increases pending for 2025-26.
Ms Allum said: “We have hope for the future, and that is important.
“We are very pleased to get members back into the water as soon as possible, and are extremely grateful to our ward councillors, and MP Rachel Gilmour and her team, for their support during this very difficult time.
“This should never have happened, but we are hopeful that Minehead Harbour will be a more vibrant place this summer.”
Ms Allum said Minehead Harbour would never run on the ‘cost-neutral basis’ which the council wanted to see.
She said staff costs alone were nearly £1,000 a week, and children, visitors, and local people would not pay £10.50 each to launch a kayak or paddleboard from the slipway when harbours in towns such as Lynmouth and Combe Martin were free.
Ms Allum said Mrs Gilmour, who visited the sailing club last autumn, had offered help to enable the charity to reopen, and allocated a caseworker to investigate the issues in and around the harbour.
She said Mrs Gilmour’s team was continuing to liaise with the Department for Transport and maritime organisations to push for improvements for all harbour users.