The Bathside Bay story

In this article the author considers whether an opportunity to develop harbour facilities at a strategically located site in Harwich Harbour on the east coast of England may have been missed in the 1960s and 1970s. The complications of divided ownership and powers to develop the site are explained; and successive attempts to obtain Government approval for harbour development under section 9 of the Harbours Act 1964 (since repealed) are described. The effective operation of that control in this case, influenced at one stage by political considerations, is questioned.