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This division line will give the new authority the area, with its approaches, within which the vast bulk of the present and prospective traffic will be found and which constitutes in a maritime sense an area distinct from the lower estuary. It is the area suggested as appropriate by most of the affected interests.
It is true that by adopting this line we have excluded Ardrossan, Irvine, Troon and Ayr, in addition to many smaller harbours but we have done so deliberately. The main risk to be guarded against in the outer estuary is the possibility of new developments at the existing ports, or at any projected new port, which might adversely affect the plan for the estuary as a whole, and provision for this risk must be made. To meet this possibility we have made certain recommendations in Para. (137), which in our view will adequately safeguard the position.
(135) Undertakings to be absorbed: Our conception is that there should from the first be incorporated in the new undertaking, and that there should pass under the initial transfer, at least the undertakings of the Clyde Naviga- tion Trust, the Clyde Lighthouses Trust and the Greenock Harbour Trust, and the functions of the Clyde Pilotage Authority: and that the new authority should be empowered to acquire by agreement any of the other dock, pier or harbour undertakings within the area above the Cumbraes. Failing such agreement, we suggest a provision on the lines of s. 1o of the Port of London Act, 1920, empowering the new authority to acquire any of these other undertakings compulsorily by provisional order.
In our view the railway passenger piers at Craigendoran, Gourock, Wemyss Bay, Largs and Fairlie should, for the present at least, continue to be operated and controlled by the respective railway companies: and this could be achieved either by deferring the power to acquire these piers, or by an agreed token transfer and re-transfer under licence. We anticipate no difficulty in the adjustment of the matter between the railway companies and the new authority.
We do not contemplate an immediate transfer of the small harbours and piers above the Cumbraes on the coasts of Bute, Argyllshire and Dunbarton- shire, for they do not constitute a part of the port facilities of the Clyde but have rightly been made the subject of a different administrative and financial policy, as explained in Para. (38).
In view of the special position of Dumbarton Harbour Board as explained in Para. (23) a transfer could not properly be effected except on terms to be adjusted not only with the undertakers but with Messrs. Denny; and though similar specialities do not affect the Cart Navigation, General Terminus Quay, Renfrew Wharf and Bowling Harbour, we consider that such minor undertakings should be left to be taken over by agreement, or, if the new authority so resolves, and if agreement cannot be reached, by an application for compulsory powers.
(136) Powers of the new authority: (a) above the Cumbraes: Within its own area above the Cumbraes we recommend that the new authority should be vested with the powers and duties of the absorbed undertakings, so far as still appropriate and necessary, and with all the additional powers enjoyed under their latest statutes by the leading dock authorities of the United Kingdom. Some of these powers have not been exercised to any great extent on the Clyde, such as the provision of warehouse services, stevedoring, towage and the like, but we think it essential that they should be conferred. leaving it to the new authority to determine how far such services should continue in other hands; and how far it may prove desirable to supersede
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or supplement the services of private firms. The new authority should also have powers (additional to their present licensing powers), similar to those exercised by the Minister of War Transport in Glasgow and Greenock under the war-time dock labour scheme, to regulate the operations of stevedoring and master porterage firms and to fix their maximum charges. Provision should also be made for the licensing of tugs and the control of towage charges.
Without prejudice to the rights of the Ministry of War Transport in relation to works below high-water mark, we also consider that the owners of all existing but unabsorbed pier or harbour undertakings above the Cumbraes should be laid under a statutory obligation,—(a) to maintain the works to the reasonable satisfaction of the new authority, in so far as they may affect navigation; (b) to obtain the licence of the new authority for any additions, extensions or new contruction below high-water mark; and (c) to comply with the regulation of the new authority as regards user of the works to prevent unfair competition
(137) Powers of the new authority (b) below the Cumbraes: It will be sufficient in our view to restrict the powers of the new authority in the lower estuary below the Cumbraes to present or future harbour works capable of being used for overseas trade or for coasting trade, other than that of West Scotland. The owners of such existing or projected harbours or docks should be laid under obligation to consult in advance with the new authority regard- ing new capital works for the provision of additional accommodation for ocean or coastal shipping, and the new authority should be empowered to acquire any such undertaking by agreement, or, failing agreement, to apply by provisional order for powers of compulsory acquisition.
We may observe that we have no cause to think that the railway companies or the authorities at Irvine and Ardrossan will fail to co-operate amicably with the new authority, if only in their own best interests. But on the long view some such provision as we have indicated seems indispensable in order to ensure that the new authority may with confidence proceed to frame and execute its master plan. It may safely be assumed that the new authority would only operate the suggested safeguard with a full sense of responsibility in order to protect the wider public interest against wasteful duplication of facilities and unfair competition.
We may add that we have in view the possibility that the general question of railway-owned docks may again come under review in the future; and if it should be determined to divorce railway docks from the relative railway undertakings, the new authority would be the appropriate body to assume control at Ayr and Troon.
(138) In the representations addressed to us various conditions were suggested for the purpose either of committing the new authority to action in certain directions, or of limiting their activities in other directions. We are opposed to any such fettering of the discretion of the new authority. As we have stated, we contemplate that the new authority will be taken bound to maintain, improve and develop its undertaking in such fashion as to promote to the best advantage the efficient and economical working of all the facilities provided, or to be provided, in the estuary, and to do so in the general interest of the hinterland which it serves and of the country as a whole. Under some such charter an authority composed as we suggest can and should be left to study and solve its own problems, without being rigidly tied down in advance by specific requirements and prohibitions. The new authority would of course require Parliamentary approval for additional borrowing powers and for the construction of major new works.
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