Power supplied to Weymouth Peninsula after delays
It means fishermen will be allowed from the New Year
Delays to works on Weymouth’s Peninsula, caused by a lack of power, have been resolved.
The multi-million pound regeneration project has been held up by a lack of connection to the National Grid, which was expected to have been completed in August.
Dorset harbours manager Ed Carter has confirmed that SSE has now made the grid connection ‘in recent days’.
“It’s fantastic news. Over the next couple of weeks we will commission and test and look forward to letting the fishermen in very early in the New Year,” said Mr Carter.
Work started on the Peninsula area, behind the Pavilion, in October and was expected to be completed by April 2025.
A spokesperson for SSE said that the company had been waiting for land rights to be granted to allow the connection to be completed.
The Peninsula project is to create new facilities for fishing, charter and harbourside businesses, alongside improved public access.
The improvements so far have been funded by a grant of £3.79m which was awarded to the then Weymouth & Portland Borough Council, in partnership with Weymouth Area Development Trust, in March 2019 from the Government’s Coastal Communities Fund.
Works already carried out as part of the project include the demolition of former harbourside building and creating new facilities for the commercial fishing industry, including modernised catch landing areas; improved storage; ice and welfare facilities and ensuring better access for fishing vessels.
New signs, new benches along the public walkway, and adjustments to the commercial lighting have also been carried out while awaiting the power connection.
Dorset Council’s harbours advisory committee has been told that one of the port’s former facilities, the link-span used by roll-on, roll-off ferries, remains in place and will not be moved until a new Harbour Order comes into place.
The Harbour Revision Order, which is currently being progressed, seeks to change Weymouth’s ‘open port’ status removing the obligation to take vessels of any size, at any time.
The new order will limit the size of vessels the harbour has to take to 24 metres making savings in having to maintain infrastructure which is not being used, including the link-span.
Mr Carter said that legal advice was that the link-span should not be removed before the new Harbour Order was in place. The space it occupies is expected to be used for a new slipway.
Other ideas being discussed include re-purposing the old toilet block at the Pleasure Pier for business use – with an interest expressed in using the site by a scallop business.