NEWLYN'S harbour commission has revealed it owes thousands of pounds over the unfulfilled fish market.
The port faces a bill for £35,000 for preliminary surveys for the proposed market which was rejected by the commissioners earlier this year.
But at the same time the authority announced it has recovered almost £30,000 owed by users of the pontoon.
Harbourmaster Andrew Munson told a recent meeting of the port bosses he had recuperated almost all the debt owed by boat owners, with some paying in installments.
"At the end of March there was £33,506 outstanding," he said. "To date we have made arrangement with numerous fishermen to pay their debts.
"There is £2,500 where action is going to be taken against them. £598 is unrecoverable because of one boat that has gone bankrupt, and there is the possible sum of £2,300 which we are still trying to recover because we don't have their names and addresses.
"The rest has been recovered or arrangements made."
But Mr Munson also revealed the bad news that the commission owes a similar amount over its plans for a new £5million fish market, which were voted down in August amid concerns over taking on more debt.
The commission was loaned the money by Penwith District Council to cover tests on the proposed site in Newlyn.
But although the commissioners turned down more than £3 million in grants, the debt – taken on by Cornwall Council – still remains unpaid.
"In view of the financial situation of the board of commissioners at that time, this money was bankrolled by the Penwith District Council on the premise that once we received the money from the grant, we would reimburse them the £35,000 again," said Mr Munson. "Although we were anticipating the grant, we weren't successful so that amount is still outstanding."
The news was met with shock by the current commission, with Elizabeth Stevenson "very unhappy". She said the board had been led to believe the grant was automatic, and questioned why it had failed. Her colleague John Lambourn said all the commissioners shared responsibility for the debt. "This was a bill that was incurred by us as part of the whole process to try to get the new fish market to go ahead," he said. "It is our bill, distasteful as that may be."
article copyright THE CORNISHMAN