HIKING mooring fees in Ceredigion’s harbours would be disastrous for Aberaeron and New Quay and could cause significant damage to Ceredigion’s economy, it has been warned.

Ceredigion County Council has come under fire after it emerged that the authority was looking to increase mooring fees at all harbours in the county by either 25 per cent or 50 per cent to combat a deficit of £250,000.

While boat owners have criticised the large increase, Aberaeron councillor Elizabeth Evans warned the move could devastate Aberaeron and New Quay, and urged council Cabinet members to abandon the proposal.

Cllr Evans said: “It’s cutting our harbours off at the knees. The reason Aberaeron and New Quay exist is because of our harbours.

“We’re going to suffer significantly as an economy if we put these fees up 25 per cent.

“I genuinely fear for the future of our harbour.”

She also questioned the claim that the harbour budget was £250,000 in deficit and said there were no details about whether that included maintenance of areas that shouldn’t be included in the harbour account.

While harbour users had feared the council would be putting the price up by 25 per cent each year until that deficit is cut, council leader Ellen ap Gwynn said they were only looking at what the fee would be for 2018/19 currently.

She said: “We shan’t be looking further than one year.”

Cllr Ifan Davies said he supported a 25 per cent increase in the mooring fees, but became embroiled in a row with Cllr Evans after he questioned whether Aberaeron had lost services like some other areas such as Tregaron had.

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