Is harbour plan becalmed? | Canterbury Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Canterbury

Yacht and boat owners fear a golden opportunity to improve recreational boating facilities at Lyttelton is about to be lost.

Lyttelton Port plans redevelopment of the western inner harbour, moving the ferry services and small charter operators to a new site on LPC land there.

The area is the traditional home for Lyttelton's keelboats and launches, and about 68 are there on the aged pile moorings.

LPC indicated to boaties early this year its redevelopment would involve pulling out the piles and putting in floating finger pontoons for about 100 small boats.

However, they fear the company has reneged on this because the city council (the company's major shareholder) does not want a scheme that could compete with the Covington proposal.

LPC CEO Peter Davie says a small marina that could link to the public facility and involve an upgrade of the inner harbour moorings could be associated with the ferry and charter boat development.

"The small marina concept is essentially an improvement of the current inner harbour moorings, located at the same site and catering for a similar number of berths."

These plans were quite separate from any development at Magazine Bay, said Davie. "Our primary driver is to move the public ferry facilities from the bustle of the port into a safer area. The small marina concept is secondary to this development and will tidy up the waterfront."

The proposal was in its infancy and dependent on commitment from the city council and other key stakeholders, he said.

However, boat owners feel LPC has backed off from what it originally offered them.

Naval Point Club commodore Graham Moffatt says they believe the about-face had been prompted by the city council, which did not want to promote a scheme that would ultimately be in direct competition with the Covington plan.

"Council has now rebudgeted the $5.6 million set down for marina facilities in 2008 for a further three years," he said. "That's 2011, and that's absurd."

With "Little Bosnia" and a public slip that was a health and safety nightmare you would think there would be a degree of haste to get things under way, he said.

"Naval Pointers fail to understand why the CCC is loath to commit to foreshore improvements now and let the Covington proposal develop at a later date," he said.

"That way we'd have a safer facility now, and we wouldn't have to witness the daily ritual (at the public ramp) of some poor soul's mishap in his tangle with broken concrete and exposed reinforcing steel."