ANGRY boat owners are refusing to pay their fees for berths in Watchet Marina, claiming that lack of dredging and maintenance has made the harbour unfit for purpose.

Two have successfully sued Watchet Harbour Marina company for the return of two years’ mooring fees, each totalling over £4,000, on the grounds that the operator failed to provide water in the marina at all states of the tide and failed in its duty of care to berth-holders.

One, retired head teacher Jonathan Pearman, of Watchet, said: “I paid the full annual fee for the next two years after an assurance that dredging would take place, but it didn’t. An historic harbour has been ruined by wilful neglect.”

And Somerset West and Taunton Council, which has served the company with an enforcement order that could force it to hand back the marina lease unless defects were remedied, said this week that there had been “no obvious improvement to date”.

A spokesman for the Watchet Boat Owners’ Association told the Free Press many people with boats in the harbour had “gone on rent strike” and refused to pay marina fees until conditions had improved.

WBOA chairman Ray Ventura added: “The marina is in an appalling state and I can quite understand why people are not paying when they feel they are not getting value for their money.

“We are so frustrated with the present situation and having to watch the marina sink steadily under the mud. Unless something drastic is done, it surely has no future. Why should anyone keep a boat here?”

But this week, marina owner Tim Taylor hit back at his critics, claiming that he now had a good long-term solution to the mud problem and that action would be taken against the few customers who used the mud as an excuse not to pay. They would also “not be welcome” in the marina in the future.

Watchet’s district council member Loretta Whetlor said that over the past ten years, the current management had “completely given up” on the marina and it was now neglected and virtually derelict.

“The council is going through the proper legal process to rectify the situation and bring the marina under proper management, but these things take time, and I urge people to be patient for a little longer,” she said.

Read the full report on this – and marina operator Tim Taylor’s reply in tomorrow’s Free Press.