Mayor Marvin Rees has called Bristol's harbour 'a financial drain on the city' and says that its financial shortfall of around £500,000 is impacting the budgets for frontline council services. The comments were made in a blog post about the imminent and controversial decision to hike the fees charged for mooring in the city’s old docks.
Mr Rees sparked controversy when he labelled those living on the harbour as the 'privileged few' who are are 'abusing the system', which caused outrage among boat residents.
The mayor has previously said the amount of money the council has charged those mooring on the harbour has not increased sufficiently for years and that increased fees were only being brought into line with comparable costs in other cities in the UK to enable the council to run "an effective harbour service."
