GCDCS Executive Committee was fortunate to be offered a tour of Grimsby Docks with ABP’s Grimsby Docks Manager, Ashley Curnow. This is something we sought since our talk from Martyn Boyers, Chief Executive of Grimsby Fish Market about Grimsby Fish Dock Enterprises (Autumn 2017) and also fits well with our communications since then, with representatives from NEL Council, Orsted and not least, with Dr Bloy’s talk last March about the rise and decline of the fishing industry.
Our tour began on the East Side, which, being the site of the old fish docks is dominated by the Grade 2 listed Ice Factory built between 1898 and 1901; it is clear that nothing has been done towards its preservation for many years, but we were assured that work is being done in the background to secure its future. It is interesting to note that here, that, as in many unsafe buildings today, drones were used as a vital surveying tool.
Grimsby is the biggest port offering off-shore wind vessel support. Orsted’s SOV (Service Operations Vessel) was in dock when we visited – it is a ‘state of the art’ vessel which, like a floating hotel, offers workers a home-from-home whilst working on wind turbines 120 km off the Yorkshire coast. It was this vessel that we heard was new to the dock when we had a talk from Orsted’s representative Emma Toulson in autumn 2018. Of historical interest, is that Orsted operates from the only part of the Dock wall that is grade 2 listed.
Out next stop was The Kasbah, an area that ABP, North East Lincolnshire Council and Historic England worked together on its preservation under the Greater Grimsby Heritage Action Zone. A group of 80 buildings, they are of different styles, size and shape due to them having been built by individual owners, rather than the more usual one landowner leasing plots to individuals. A few of these buildings continue to be in use though in need of renovation and a few others have new lease owners but a majority have still to be found new use because as with The Ice Factory, preservation goes hand-in-hand with finding a sustainable, future use – a funding requirement as emphasised to us in the Talk from Lincolnshire Heritage in February.
The £5.3 million Marine Control Centre built to replace similar facilities at Spurn Point, accommodates ABP Humber’s Marine department (shipping in the dock area) and Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) which manages shipping in the Humber area – currently overseeing about 40,000 ship journeys per year.
We passed the Fish Market - which operates at 7am every morning and very busy in the run-up to Easter - towards Seafood Village which is home to 20-30 companies and a Training School for those vitally important skills required for fish preparation.
The Marina (fish dock No.1) is full all year being rare amongst marinas because of it being in a working port rather than one of purely leisure activities which is more common.
Mr Curnow confirmed that there is no right-of-way along the river through the docks and for security reasons, ideally he would prefer to have only one exit/entrance. However, recognising that it is a popular cycle route to work for many, access is closed only during night-time hours. As for the now closed-to-traffic Humber Street Bridge, 1000 people per day use it as a route to work!
Onto the Western Entrance, accessed from Moody Lane off the A180, and the home of general stevedore import and export, including when we visited, 20,000 tons of sand stored for the cement industry. By far the most visible import/export though is automotive, handling 280,000 vehicles per year for VW Group. Grimsby River Terminal, where the car–carrying vessels dock, is currently dredged every 2 weeks (this reminds of Stephen Bloy’s talk in March and the fact that throughout history the Docks needed constant dredging to be viable) but is to be made deeper to allow for even larger vessels able to carry up to 3,000 cars each. Preparation for Brexit has undoubtedly brought about a huge amount of traffic recently but growth is being planned for: at 8.6 acres currently, more land is needed for the storage and preparation of the vehicles coming into the UK. Grimsby follows closely on the heels of Southampton which is currently the UK port handling the most car imports but it is clear that Grimsby will be able to offer a variety of jobs in the automotive sector for the foreseeable future! And, news to us is that rail is under consideration as a quicker method of transporting vehicles to Scotland. Grimsby to Scotland by rail – who’d have thought it!
The 4 Executive Committee members who were able to make the tour were very grateful to be given the opportunity and we thanked Ashley for his time and knowledge conveying to us, the buoyant future for the Docks area.
SM