HARBOURS ACT 1964 (AS AMENDED)

PROPOSED DEE ESTUARY CONSERVANCY HARBOUR REVISION ORDER

Notice is hereby given that the Environment Agency (“the Agency”) has applied to the Secretary of State for Transport for a Harbour Revision Order under section 14 of the Harbours Act 1964. By virtue of the Environment Act 1995 and the Dee Conservancy Act 1889, the Agency is the conservancy authority for the estuary of the River Dee. By virtue of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995 the Agency is the local lighthouse authority for the same area. The purpose of the proposed Order is to modernise the Agency’s management powers and, in so doing: 1. To enable the Agency to provide for the maintenance, operation, management and improvement of the estuary, the harbour premises and the facilities (including recreational facilities) afforded therein or in connection therewith, and for the conservation of the estuary’s flora, fauna and geological and physiographical features of special interest. 2. To require the Agency from time to time to formulate and publish a management plan in relation to its undertaking, and to establish and maintain arrangements for a consultative committee which it shall consult (except in a case of special urgency) on all matters substantially affecting the conservancy, protection, regulation, operation, management and improvement of the estuary and its navigation. 3. To confer powers on the Agency with respect to the erection or placing of aids to navigation, removal of obstructions other than vessels, the provision of moorings, repair of landing places, dredging, disposal of wrecks, the making of byelaws and the giving of general and special directions to vessels. 4. To make provision as to the payment of charges for services and facilities provided by the Agency within the estuary. 5. To provide for the restriction of works and dredging without a licence, the licensing of works and dredging and for appeals in respect of works and dredging licences. 6. To enact byelaws regulating the navigation, berthing and mooring of vessels in the estuary, requiring inspection facilities on a vessel to be made available to the Agency’s harbourmaster, prohibiting the fumigation of vessels without permission and the discharge of matter into the estuary, requiring fishermen to comply with directions given by the Agency’s harbourmaster, prohibiting the dragging or grappling of any material or article from the bed of the estuary without permission, requiring a vessel to be marked with its name or other form of identification, prohibiting the abandonment of vessels, regulating water-skiing, aquaplaning, parakiting, parascending, diving, underwater swimming, regattas, races and similar activities and events, requiring the master of a vessel to give reasonable assistance to the emergency services and to take reasonable precautions for the prevention of accidental fire, prohibiting the intentional obstruction of officers of the Agency, prohibiting the use of firearms and airguns without consent and requiring the use of apparatus to minimise noise emanating from vessels powered by an internal combustion engine. 7. To provide for the protection of Mostyn Docks Limited and the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company. 8. To repeal the Dee Conservancy Act 1889. 9. To incorporate certain provisions of the Harbours, Docks and Piers Clauses Act 1847. 10. To make provision for such other matters as may be incidental, consequential or supplementary to any of the foregoing purposes. The proposed Order would not authorise a project. Accordingly Council Directive 85/337/EEC on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment (as amended by Council Directive 97/11/EC) does not apply to proposals and no environmental statement has been supplied with the application. A copy of the draft Order which accompanied the application may be inspected between 9.00 am and 5.00 pm, Monday to Friday, at the Environment Agency Wales, Chester Road, Buckley, Flintshire CH7 3AG. A copy of the draft Order is also available for inspection at the Ports Division of the Department for Transport, Zone 2/31, Great Minster House, 76 Marsham Street, London SW1P 3DR by appointment (telephone 020 7944 5077), and at the offices of the undermentioned Solicitors and Parliamentary Agents. Any person wishing to make an objection or representation to the Secretary of State concerning the application should within forty-two days from the date at the foot of this notice write to the Secretary of State for Transport, c/o Colin Morris, Zone 2/31, Great Minster House, 76 Marsham Street, London SW1P 4DR, or by fax to 020 7944 2188 or e-mail to colin.morris@dft.gsi.gov.uk, quoting Ref P89/3/431, stating the grounds of their objection or representation and give an address to which correspondence relating to the objection or representation may be sent. The Secretary of State will pass to the applicant a copy of any objection or representation he receives. Bircham Dyson Bell, 50 Broadway, Westminster, London SW1H 0BL, Solicitors and Parliamentary Agents acting for the Environment Agency. 26 January 2005.