Whitby Harbour dredging licence set to be granted ‘in the next month or so’ – senior councillor
Council bosses have said they are ‘very hopeful’ that a dredging licence for Whitby Harbour will be granted this spring.
Senior members at North Yorkshire Council have said that the authority is close to receiving a licence from the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) to begin dredging Whitby Harbour.
The council was granted a dredging licence for Scarborough last December and dredging began in the harbour entrance just before Christmas.
Speaking at a full meeting of the authority on Wednesday, February 26, Coun Neil Swannick said: “There was good news in your report, especially for Scarborough regarding dredging as you’ve now managed to sort out the licensing so Scarborough can be dredged.
“But it suggests that you are still trying to sort out the licenses for Whitby and in the meantime of course, Whitby continues to silt up.”
The Whitby Streonshalh representative added: “Could you let the public and harbour users know when that’s going to be resolved.”
Coun Mark Crane, the executive member for open to business, said: “I attended a meeting last week in Whitby to discuss this with harbour users. We haven’t yet got a licence for Whitby but we are very hopeful that we will get it in the next month or so.
“Once we are finished dredging in Scarborough – and that vessel will solely be used for dredging in North Yorkshire – then it will start dredging in Whitby, and harbour users there were very pleased to hear that last week.”
According to NYC, the dredging licence application for Whitby is awaiting the result of sediment sampling.
The council’s in-house dredging vessel, Sandsen, has been making “good progress” since last year and has opened a wide parallel channel for safe navigation at Scarborough Harbour’s entrance.
Coun Crane also said that a large sandbank had been removed from the rear of the 12 m berths.