This report updates members on the progress in developing a Private Bill for submission in November 2006. It outlines the high level principles and the draft timetable.
That the outline of the Private Bill and the proposed timetable be approved.
| 1 | Introduction |
| 1.1 | The Authority is promoting a Private Bill to amend the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads Act 1988 primarily to seek additional powers to improve the safety of the boating public. It is taking this opportunity to deal with other issues that have been raised in the Defra Review of the Authority and during the preparation of the Broads Plan 2004. This includes amending the name of the area and the Authority to recognise its national park status. |
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| 2 | Need for a Private Bill |
| 2.1 | The implementation of the national Boat Safety Scheme, the Breakaway V accident, in which a motor hire cruiser boat capsized on the River Bure in July 2003, together with the requirements of the Port Marine Safety Code provide very strong reasons for the Authority to seek additional powers for the safe management of the navigation. After exploring a number of routes, including a Harbour Revision Order, a Regulatory Reform Order and a Transport and Works Act Order, the advice of a Treasury Solicitor was that a Private Bill was the most appropriate way forward. Additional National Park Grant has been provided by Defra to assist the Authority with the costs of the Bill. |
| 2.2 | Other navigation authorities face similar needs in terms of modernising their legislative framework. The Environment Agency is seeking powers similar to those in this Bill to update its navigation legislation via a Transport and Works Act Order and the Authority will be incorporating clauses from the Agency Order that have been agreed with the national bodies representing boating interests. |
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| 3 | Timetable |
| 3.1 | The draft timetable is appended. Private Bills have to be deposited in Parliament in November of each year. Consultation on the high level principles has started with a meeting with the Minister and discussions with the key national boating organisations. It is proposed that a draft of the Bill together with an Explanatory Note be circulated to interested parties early in April in advance of a formal period of consultation from 22 May to 7 July 2006. That way the Authority will have a good understanding of the views of stakeholders before it finalises the contents of the Bill at the end of September. |
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| 4 | Key Provisions in the Draft Bill |
| 4.1 | The main provisions in the proposed Private Bill are as follows: |
| 4.2 | Name of the Area and Authority |
| 4.2.1 | Changing the name of the Area to the Broads National Park and the name of the Authority to the Broads National Park Authority. The Bill does not propose adopting the Sandford Principle, which gives precedence to the first purpose for national parks. The recent consultation as part of the development of the sustainable tourism strategy showed that such a provision would have considerable support locally. |
| 4.3 | Extension of General and Special Direction Powers |
| 4.3.1 | The 1988 Act (Schedule 5 Part II Section 18) gives the Authority the power to give Special Directions for regulating vessels and in an emergency they can be expressed as General Directions. The Authority is seeking to extend these powers to include Directions that cover all vessels in the normal course of navigating. This would have the effect of enabling the Authority to regulate the movement, mooring, equipment carried and information supplied of vessels for the safety of navigation persons and property in the navigation area. The Authority is also seeking the power to remove a vessel from the navigation in the event that a vessel becomes a hazard and to seek to recover its expenses, reasonably incurred. |
| 4.4 | National Boat Safety Scheme |
| 4.4.1 | The Boat Safety Scheme has been likened to the MoT for vehicles and focuses on minimising the risks of fire, explosion and pollution through regular inspection. At present the Authority is looking to introduce the national Scheme through byelaws. However, byelaws are very prescriptive and in the event of amendments to the national scheme they would need to be remade. So the Bill is proposing a power to introduce and vary the Scheme to maintain consistency with the National Scheme. It would include the power to inspect vessels. |
| 4.5 | Water Skiing |
| 4.5.1 | Water skiing is currently permitted as an exemption to the Speed Limit Byelaws made by the Authority under Section 10 (3) of the Broads Act. These byelaws allow water skiing in areas and at times designated by the byelaws provided the towing vessel has a permit granted by the Authority. The Bill seeks powers to manage water skiing in line with the present voluntary arrangements so that the Authority would be able to: vary the times and zones; insist on qualifications, membership of a recognised club, third party public liability insurance and control the number of light sports vessels undertaking the activity. The Authority is pleased with the way the management agreement with water-skiers has operated but the Authority would retain the power to ban the activity should it wish to do so. |
| 4.6 | Compulsory Third Party Insurance for Boats |
| 4.6.1 | Local users of the navigation have been seeking compulsory third party insurance for the majority of vessels for many years. The main reason is to protect individuals from liability in the event of any incident arising from third party damage. It follows similar provisions on the canals and powers that the Environment Agency are seeking for their waters. It would require boat owners of all categories of vessel determined by the Authority to maintain a policy and produce evidence of third party insurance when registering the vessel. The Authority would be able to exempt small non-powered craft such as canoes and dinghies that do not present a hazard to other users. |
| 4.7 | Licensing of Hire Boats |
| 4.7.1 | The Authority is seeking the power to license hire boats, including rescue boats and passenger vessels. Currently the District Councils have the power to license passenger vessels under Section 94 of the Public Health Act (Amendment) Act 1907. Paragraph 5 of Schedule 5 to the Broads Act empowers the Authority to make byelaws for the purpose of providing for the registration of pleasure craft and for prescribing safety, noise and pollution requirements. However, there is no other power for the Authority to impose conditions regarding their use. |
| 4.7.2 | There is the potential for six different licensing regimes in the Broads area. However, until very recently, none of the districts had exercised this power and the DTI’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch’s report following the Breakaway V accident recommended a national licensing scheme. The MCA and BMF are pursuing this. However, limited progress is being made and the Authority is seeking the necessary powers as the basis for safe and consistent management of waterways and minimising risk to third parties. |
| 4.8 | Removal of Vegetation |
| 4.8.1 | The Authority is seeking a power to enter private land to cut back vegetation that overhangs the navigation area and leave the material on the land. |
| 4.9 | Extension of the Navigation Area |
| 4.9.1 | Breydon Water and the Lower Bure, although within the Authority’s Executive Area, fall under the navigation jurisdiction of the Great Yarmouth Port Authority. For full use of the Broads navigation area a boat needs to make passage across Breydon Water and traverse the Lower Bure. This is the most difficult and dangerous section of the Broads navigation and the vast majority of boats using Breydon and the Lower Bure are registered with the BA rather than the GYPA. So therefore the two authorities have agreed that, in the interests of public safety, that the navigational role should transfer to the Broads Authority. The responsibility for the two bridges (Breydon and Haven) would remain with Port Authority. |
| 4.10 | Code of Practice for Drainage Works |
| 4.10.1 | Paragraph 33 of Schedule 3 to the Broads Act requires the Authority, after consulting a range of interested bodies and with the agreement of Defra, to prepare and issue a code of practice for the construction, alteration, renewal, maintenance or extension of drainage works within the Broads. The Authority has in practice worked with Inland Drainage Boards and landowners on the development of Water Level Management Plans which covers “alteration, removal, maintenance or extension of drainage works” as well as the management of them. With the new Agri-Environment Scheme it is anticipated that these works would form part of Farm Environment Plans (FEPs) which will be monitored by ‘Natural England’ as the successor body to the Rural Development Service. The Authority would want to be a statutory consultee on these plans and the requirement to prepare a code of practice should be removed. |
| 4.11 | Variation of the Membership of the Authority |
| 4.11.1 | The membership of the Authority is set out in Section 1(3) of the Broads Act, as amended by the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads Act 1988 (alteration of constitution of the Broads Authority) Order 2005. Section 1(5) and (6) (as amended) provide for minimum numbers of members to be appointed by the Secretary of State after consultation with boating interests and farming and land owning interests respectively. The Defra report recommended that greater flexibility should be built into the potential for future changes in membership, to take account of the potential for local government reorganisation. |
| 4.11.2 | The Authority is looking to broaden Section 1(5) and (6) of the Broads Act such that the Secretary of State would have to consult with a wider range of interests and take account of the need to provide a balance in the membership of the Authority. |
| 4.12 | Navigation Responsibilities (Section 10) |
| 4.12.1 | The Authority is proud to be the third largest inland navigation authority and has no intention of delegating this responsibility or its national park responsibilities to a third party. It is therefore proposing to remove the provision to delegate responsibilities to the Commissioners (now the Great Yarmouth Port Authority). |
| 4.12.2 | The present wording in the Act requires the Authority to appoint two navigation officers, one for the Broads and one for the Port of Norwich. With the demise in the role of Norwich as a commercial port it is more appropriate to appoint one Navigation Officer for the Broads. It is therefore proposed to remove the requirement to appoint a Norwich Navigation Officer that requires approval by the Secretary of State. It is inappropriate for the Secretary of State to be involved in the appointment of an individual member of staff and it is proposed that Section 10 (7) be removed. |
| 4.13 | Navigation Account |
| 4.13.1 | Section 17(5) of the Broads Act requires the Authority to keep two accounts: a general revenue account and a navigation revenue account. The navigation revenue account is an account of all income accruing to the Authority in respect of its functions under Part II of the Act (i.e. its navigation functions), by way of ship, passenger and goods dues under Section 26 of the Harbours Act 1964 and in respect of moorings, and of all expenditure incurred in respect of these matters. |
| 4.13.2 | Initial discussion with the national boating bodies suggests that the retention of the account is not regarded as critical as long as suitable protection can be built in to ensure that a sum greater than or equal to the income from tolls is spent on the navigation and that this can be demonstrated to toll payers. |
| 4.13.3 | The benefits of removing the requirement to maintain a separate account would be: |
| (i) | a reduction in administration overheads of maintaining two separate accounts; |
| (ii) | one account is more In keeping with the Authority’s integrated approach to the management of the Broads. |
| (iii) | a single account would be in line with the policy change by Defra to provide National Park Grant Aid for the maintenance of the waterways. |
| | The Authority will work with key local and national bodies to develop a provision that provides assurance about the expenditure of toll income. Under the new arrangements provision will be made for the transparent scrutiny of expenditure by the Navigation Committee on behalf of toll payers. |
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| 5 | Financial Implications |
| 5.1 | The initial estimate of the costs for promoting a Private Bill was £100,000 and in accordance with the Minister’s letter, provision has been made for this amount in the additional National Park Grant. The cost of the Bill could be up to £200,000 and the Authority will have a better idea of the financial implications before it finalises the Bill at the end of September. |
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| 6 | Consultations |
| 6.1 | Copies of this report have been circulated in advance of the meeting to members of the Navigation Committee, all the organisations represented on the Broads Forum, the constituent local authorities, the national park authorities and a wide range of interested bodies to ensure that the proposed timetable and an outline of the main provisions of the Private Bill are well known. |
