The Roles of Port and Local Government Authorities, and their Attitudes to Central Government's Responsibilities and Requirements

摘要

Ports and Harbours vary from massive complexes covering miles of waterside frontage and employing large numbers of people down to single terminal operations in the middle of nowhere employing just a few. Irrespective of their size they have one common aim and that is to allow their use by ships for the purpose of loading/discharging cargos. It is also a fact that the passage into or out of a Port or Harbour, within congested, relatively shallow, waters perhaps surrounded by shoals and sometimes with complex tidal regimes, represents one of the most hazardous stages of any vessels voyage. Indeed, it is a well known fact that the majority of incidents involving shipping occurs within pilotage waters. However, placed in context against the numbers of traffic movements and cargo handled the incident record of ports is generally very good. In addition, Ports are striving to improve on shipping safety and the development within the U.K. of the Port Marine Safety Code is a excellent example of this. Nevertheless, as long as shipping needs to use a Port incidents can and will continue to occur. The majority will, like now, be relatively minor and require little or no outside assistance to resolve them. Occasionally however, there will be a major incident that will require expert assistance to be called in. Provisionally the services of professional salvors.