STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL
During the first Covid lockdown in 2020, VMMA approached the Directors of Ventnor Marina Ltd to request that all moorers be granted a 3 month extension to their current mooring agreements to reflect the fact that they had been unable to use the Marina’s facilities or attend their boats due to the COVID-19 restrictions during April, May and June. The content of numerous exchanges are summarised below:
We said that whilst we appreciated the Marina had expenses during lockdown and moorings had continued to be provided, it seemed as though there would have been no, or very little loss of income, yet there would be considerable savings during the lockdown and for the rest of the tax year due to:
- no wear and tear on the facilities, roads and pontoons during the lockdown and therefore reduced maintenance and repairs required. With far fewer pump outs and Elsans being emptied, there would have been reduced disposal costs. Similarly there would have been a lot less rubbish being generated from boats with a commensurate reduction in waste disposal fees.
- the Government had made funds available to cover the wages of staff not working under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
- the Government had given a business rates holiday for 2020/2021 for businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors – based on the rateable value of the Marina (£52,250) and the standard business tax rate for 2019/2020, we believed that the Marina had seen it’s overheads for the year reduce by at least £26,000. When setting the mooring fees, we believed the cost of the business rates would have been included in the calculation and the lack of that expense for 2020/2021 would have increased the profit margin on the mooring fees.
- although moorers were able to visit Ventnor Marina from 13 May, the Marina toilets, showers, laundry and lounge remained closed and moorers were not allowed to stay on their boats overnight until 4 July. Given the distances that a lot of moorers live away from the Marina, this ability to visit their boat for the day was not a practical option.
We pointed out that the Canal & Rivers Trust had granted license holders an extension to their boating licenses and it had been commonplace for organisations where members have been unable to make use of the facilities paid for by annual fees to have been granted extensions.
The Directors’ responses are summarised below:
- The decision to close the Marina was due to the Government’s directive on non-essential travel, which included visits to leisure moorings, and Ventnor Marina was required to comply with them. The guidelines were set by the Government not the Marina. Throughout this period, the Marina continued to provide moorers with the service they were paying for ie. the mooring or storage of a boat and the Marina would not reduce mooring fees or extend the mooring agreement.
- The Castle Group took a decision in late March not to furlough any of its staff.
- Costs have remained constant, although income has been greatly affected by new customers not being able to arrive. It is true that CRT have recognised that their licenced boat owners have been unable to use the canal network and compensated them for this, but moorers pay mooring fees to Castle Marinas and moorers’ boats have remained continually moored at Ventnor Marina. The Government imposed restriction on everyone’s movement hasn’t affected the mooring of boats, but rather the moorers’ access to it.
- In response, we pointed out that we believed Ventnor Marina was at close to maximum occupancy and boats that might have left, would not have been able to leave, so it was difficult to see how the income has been greatly affected by the ban on movement, to which the Directors’ only response was that the Marina was at just over 80% capacity.
- Mooring fees are not charged by the number of visits to a boat, but by the residence of the boat in the Marina. The infrastructure of the Marina remains the same and the running costs of the Marina still have to be met ie. wages, services, contractors fees, licences etc. The Marina was fully operational throughout the pandemic, with admin and maintenance all working hard to protect customers assets.
- The weather is the biggest cause for repairs
- The Marina did receive some relief from business rates, but the benefit will be received gradually. As a result of this help the Marina was able to keep every single member of the staff employed without having to have the taxpayer pay their furlough costs.
- If staff had been furloughed, the Marina would have been in a shocking state when the season started in earnest in May.
The Directors of Ventnor Marina concluded by saying that Castle Marinas’ business model was not something to be debated and that moorers had made the decision to keep their boats at Ventnor because they loved the way it is run and looked after. That ‘look and feel’ could not be maintained with any reduction in income, let alone the 25% reduction in annual income suggested. Moorers need to decide whether they are prepared to accept this compromise – they pay mooring fees for keeping their boat at Ventnor and Castle Marinas has been supplying that service throughout this crisis.
Subsequently, in 2021 the Committee obtained copies of the published accounts for Ventnor Marina Limited for the years ended 30 September 2019 and 2020, which are publicly available from Companies House. These appeared to show that profits to 2020 had gone down but the short form accounts did not provide detailed information which would enable an analysis of year on year expenditure versus income to be made or to verify the claims made by the Marina Directors in correspondence during 2020.
After some discussion, the Committee felt that no further action would be taken by VMMA in connection with trying to get some compensation for moorers due to the Covid lockdown. It was felt that pursuing the matter further could be detrimental to cordial relationship which existed between the Association and the Marina staff – which was sadly not reflected by the Directors’ attitude of If you don’t like it, leave.