Argyll and Bute Council is on track to achieve a national good practice standard for its ports and harbours that few others in the UK have secured.
The Port Marine Safety Code (PMSC) sets out a national safety standard covering different aspects of running ports and harbours.
The current list of 230+ ports, published by The Department for Transport as complying with the Code, represents around 14% of UK ports and 30% of Statutory Harbour Authorities.
Achieving the standard involves an independent assessor (‘designated person’) carrying out assurance audits of ports and harbours.
At its meeting today, the Harbour Board heard a presentation from the Designated Person, and considered a report, on findings of audits of Helensburgh Pier, Kilcreggan Pier and Dunoon Harbour. These covered the best practice identified and where required, improvement actions in place.
Examples of best practice at Helensburgh and Kilcreggan Piers include having an oil pollution plan in place; examples of improvements planned include adding annexes for Helensburgh and Kilcreggan Piers in the council’s marine safety management system.
Best practice examples at Dunoon Harbour include having 16 marine risk assessments in place; improvement actions include making copies of harbour order legislation easily available to staff.
Chair of the Harbour Board, Councillor Rory Colville said:
“We want to ensure our ports and harbours continue to function safely at the highest operational standards. Achieving this national standard is not a requirement, it’s a choice - only a minority of UK ports and harbours have gained it. We want to secure it for Argyll and Bute’s council-run ports and harbours as part of our drive to deliver high quality marine services. I welcome the progress being made in doing that.”
You can read more on the council’s website.