Paul Britton is Harbour Master and CEO of Dart Harbour and Navigation Authority.

He discussed his role as Harbour Master and CEO of Dart Harbour Navigation Authority and outlines the organisation's unique statutory structure, services, and future development plans for the river.

Paul explains that Dart Harbour Navigation Authority is a trust port established by statute, meaning it operates without a company number and reinvests all profits back into the river.

Unlike local authority or council ports such as Southampton, Torbay Harbour, or Plymouth Harbour, this organisation functions under an act of parliament managed by a board of volunteers.

“Our statutory role is to provide safe navigation. So, we have to maintain a deep navigable channel. We have to maintain all of the navigation marks. We need to make sure that we provide information to mariners to keep them safe,” he said.

Paul explained that the harbour authority need to be ready to respond to oil spills and to emergencies as part of its daily duties. They also have a commercial aspect to their day to day operations which plays a large role in what the do.

Paul said: “A large part of our business is providing moorings.

“There's around 3,000 moorings for boats on the river. About half of them are ours. So we maintain them, service them, provide moorings for various different boats on the river.

“In terms of our customer service role, we like to think we go far beyond what our statutory duties are,” Paul added.

Paul grew up by the sea near Brighton and used to visit Dartmouth as a child which gave him a love of all things maritime.

Paul said: “It sort of started when I was about three years old, the first time I came to Dartmouth, and staying here, seeing the river, seeing all of the ferries going up and down and riding up and down on them, sort of got me into into my love of ships and the sea.”

This led Paul onto a career in the marine industry working on cruise ships for a number of years working his way up from cadet to chief officer and also working on ferries.

Paul then came ashore, managing operations for a couple of cruise lines before landing the job in Dartmouth.

Paul went on to describe what he likes about the job, he said, “Every every day is different” and he says you must respect the sea and river which can go from being calm and peaceful to rough and powerful.

Paul said: “I love ships. I love every everything to do with it and particularly ports, harbours, rivers, where the where the sea meets the land. That's the exciting bit for me.”

Paul explained that they are a Trust Port which is not part of a local authority or central government.

They are not a private company nor a charity although they have some similarities: “We're a corporation established by statute and effectively we don't really report to anybody.

“We're not allowed to make a profit, all of the money that we make gets reinvested back into the river, and we're managed by a dedicated board of volunteers and myself.”

Plans have been prepared for the next 25 years and can be viewed on the website and comments are still welcome.

For more information visit: https://www.dartharbour.org/