Annual General Meeting – Friday 16 August 2024

CHAIR’S REPORT ON BEHALF OF TRUSTEES

As planned, over the last year we have been busy concentrating on the day-to-day management of the creek as there was much to be done.

We committed to increasing communication from the Harbour Support Group to the parish and all harbour users –  we have further refined the website and the new payment portal to make it easier and simpler to buy boat licences. The latter has had a beneficial impact on licence sales with another record number of licences sold in 2024. A big thankyou to all those who have supported the charity in this way.  We continue to publish our newsletter upthecreek! on an ad hoc basis and also started to communicate directly with those on the register of CL65.  We estimate that around 1000 people now receive our newsletter.

Last autumn, we organised the clearance of the verges with the support of the Parish Council, the Boathouse and other owners of the verges.  Of all the Trust’s activities, this seems to be the one that is most appreciated by villagers. It is also the most arduous. This year Toby Campbell-Gray  spearheaded this task and we are most grateful to him.

Throughout the year we have run work parties to make running repairs to the banks.  In particular, thank you to a team of volunteers who helped install sandbags on the cockle path early one freezing December morning.  In April, at no cost we were offered 20 tons of surplus gravel from the renovation of the Boathouse Quay.  It was used to repair holes on the Hard and also on the Cockle Path – the results have been excellent with the gravel bedding down very well in both locations. Thank you to all the volunteers who helped with these initiatives – and, specifically, to Ash Faire Ring who generously provided his workboat to transport the gravel.

Our application to be the principal beneficiary charity of the Superhero 2024 met with success – as a result, I am delighted to confirm that we are to receive over £180,000.  We would like to thank all the competitors, donors, sponsors and Superhero organisers for this munificence – and a special mention to Max Owles, manager of the boathouse, for raising £11,000.   Congratulations to the whole Superhero team for raising over £1m for Norfolk charities over the last 15 years.  It’s a wonderful event and one the village is rightly proud of.

This huge donation is a game changer for the Harbour Trust as we are now in a position to press ahead with the once-in-decades Groyne and Saltmarsh Restoration Project.  We have held quite a few consultations and presentations on our plans: to summarise the aim is to repair the groynes to prevent the creek from silting up and protect our precious, uniquely biodiverse saltmarsh.  Works will start in the autumn and should be completed by the spring.   Perhaps more importantly, from a longer term perspective, we will do this “in-house” with our own team rather than outside contractors. This will allow us to build up our own expertise and experience; going forward we will be in a better position to maintain the groynes regularly rather than rely on intermittent large scale projects.

This has been an enormous and complex undertaking – as an example, we have had to seek permission from 8 different organisations alone.  I would like to thank David de Stacpoole and John Owles for all their time and effort on this project.

Finally, back in the autumn the BOHT commissioned Lifeblood – the history of our very own creek – to give recognition to the munificent contribution by the Superhero 2024 and also to emphasise the importance of the Burn and creek to the community over time. Thank you to a group of underwriters who committed to make donations to cover the costs if required – although sales have been strong and so this project will generate a surplus for the charity.  If you have not bought a copy, please do so as it is selling so fast that we may need to raise prices….and a special thanks to Max and the boathouse for selling Lifeblood on our behalf.

Obviously we will be very busy this winter, but into the Spring, we will start to look at resolving the constitutional issues including the structure of a future BOHT management committee, agreement on a widely-supported moorings policy and representation of all stakeholders.  In the first instance we will seek legal opinion on matters relating to the management of the creek including the use of moorings. We hope to make this an inclusive process with the support of all our stakeholders.

It is heartening to have received a variety of letters, emails and verbal thanks from so many stakeholders who benefit from the BOHT’s work – I just want to pass on these thanks to the members of the Harbour Support Group, including our secretary and treasurer designate, and all the volunteers who have provided so much time and effort: a big thankyou to you all.