Port had a good march, meeting hears

March was a good month for Lerwick’s harbour, the Lerwick Port Authority was told this week.

At the authority’s monthly meeting on Tuesday, the harbourmaster reported that there had been over 430 arrivals for the month, a figure 4.2 per cent down on the same period last year but good nonetheless.

Captain Calum Grains said that overall the number of vessels entering the harbour for the year to date amounts to a decrease of 9.9 per cent on last year, but that there were no specific reasons for this. There has, however, been a notable decrease in the number of fishing vessels calling at the harbour.

He also said the authority was performing well on health and safety issues, achieving 100 per cent in the majority of their safety-related targets.

Board members also heard that the authority had performed extremely well in a recent six monthly assessment by BSi Management Systems.

The authority was praised for “the depth and standard of internal auditing, and the comprehensive approach to system management applied across the diverse port authority operations”.