CEREDIGION County Council plans to raise moorings fees by 25 per cent have caused uproar among leisure boat users at Aberaeron.

Members of the thriving communities committee met last week to consider inflationary-linked increases for commercial-related mooring fees as part of their scrutiny of the 2018-19 budget. 

An increase of 25 per cent for leisure-related mooring fees will be considered by Cabinet next Tuesday as part of a stepped move towards operating the service on a greater cost recovery basis as harbour accounts currently show a deficit of around £250k.

Councillors were told that a 25 per cent increase would raise an additional £30,000 over the next eight years.

But harbour user Nick Sawyer told the Cambrian News he was “devastated” to learn of the proposals and had already sold his boat.

“I paid £300 for my boat – for being in the water and on common land in the winter,” he said. “I have to pay for all mooring ropes and chains – all I get is a patch of water.

“If this goes through it would mean a 144 per cent increase for me within five years, or a 500 per cent increase over eight.

“I cannot afford that and most other boat users can’t either. Aberaeron is a tidal harbour which is not protected and therefore cannot be used all the time – we get two-metre waves here sometimes.

“These measures will not be cost-effective as they will make more users abandon the harbour."

Cllr Elizabeth Evans has vowed to fight ‘tooth and nail’.

“I am really worried – we’re talking here about ordinary working people,” she said.

See this week’s South Ceredigion paper for the full story, available in shops and as a digital edition now