The Port of London Authority (PLA) has opted not to proceed with the proposed increase in their legal limits from Mean High Water (MHW) to Mean High Water Spring (MHWS) along the 190 miles of the River Thames.

The proposed increase had formed part of the PLA’s application for a Harbour Revision Order (HRO) submitted to the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) in April 2020.

Prior to the application, the PLO had held a relatively short informal stakeholder consultation in Autumn 2019 – the initial six-week period was later extended to eight weeks.

The announcement was made at the PLA’s annual stakeholders’ forum which took place virtually on Tuesday 11^th May.

In response to a number of questions put by Dido Berkeley on behalf of environmental NGO Thames Blue Green Economy about the Harbour Revision Order, PLA Chairman Christopher Rodrigues who was chairing the forum, invited Julie Tankard Chief Financial Officer of the PLA, to speak.

Julie Tankard commented:

“We have submitted our HRO – our Harbour Revision Order – and Dido will be very pleased to know that after a lot of internal discussion we have decided not to change our jurisdiction. So there was a discussion about whether we moved to Mean High Water Springs from Mean High Water, which is what we currently operate at. So there is no change to that, so I think that will please a lot of people and take a lot of questions off the table for us.”

The decision follows on from internal discussions at the PLA about the proposal which would have applied along the 190 miles of the River Thames covering banks, walls and flood plains, and covering some SSSI sites as well.

A number of stakeholders, including the environmental NGO Thames Blue Green Economy (TBGE) (advised by the Environmental Law Foundation - ELF), residential vessel owners on the Thames, watermen and lightermen had expressed serious concerns over the potential impact of the proposed changes to the legal limits, including:

• although the 50 cms difference between MHW and MHWS is overtly quite small, over the 190 miles of Thames’ coastal river banks and walls, both vertically and horizontally, this would in fact cover acres of  and, water, moorings, piers, boathouses, slipways, steps and stairs etc and include floodplains, as well as the biodiversity of several SSSI sites.
• that the shortness of the informal consultation period in Autumn 2019, and the relative of lack of notification/publicity was unreasonable for a highly complex document with such far-reaching implications
• an apparent implicit assumption in the language of the Revision Order that the Port Authority had sole right to decide the use of any part of the Thames and its catchment, irrespective of existing rights which currently fall outside their jurisdiction
• the appearance that changes in the legislation would make it possible for riparian landowners - as agents of the PLA - to charge for mooring, rather than the current situation whereby they can only charge for access across their land, and potential resulting increases in fees.
• revenue implications from additional fees raised by the PLA over a greatly increased area of jurisdiction

When the PLA first made the application, the Authority said it was seeking an HRO to modernise the Port of London Act, under which it operates, to reflect the operations and technology in use on the river today and its continued evolution as a modern, transparent organisation.

Further official confirmation by the PLA is expected with regard to the present legal position of the HRO application to the MMO, now that the Authority has announced that proposed changes to increase the jurisdiction area from MHW to MHWS would not now be implemented.

The MMO has not yet started the formal consultation on the HRO application giving the public and interested stakeholders to opportunity to comment on the new proposals. The PLA have asked that this does not start until Government coronavirus restrictions are fully lifted.

TBGE is awaiting confirmation in writing of the PLA’s decision not to increase their tidal limits, and also an official statement as to where the change will leave the legal position of the present HRO application, which is currently with the MMO.

TBGE has also expressed concern that the rest of the powers that the PLA are proposing to date have still not had any Environmental Impact Assessment in light of the Climate Emergency and the impact the new powers are likely to have on the key functions of the whole tidal Thames, including the river community, the marine industry, biodiversity and financially.