Exhilaration Boat Rides are a family run business that offer various boat trips from Southsea Beach. They had up until this year ran the business from a hut on the beach. Unfortunately the council have not renewed their lease and will not allow them to operate from the beach either, thus taking away their livelihood and the enjoyment of the tourists that use it, many of which come back for repeat trips during the year. A large percentage of their custom was from passing tourist trade that took advantage of the great value 15 minute rib ride experience along the Solent which unfortunately can no longer happen. It's a shame that the Council will not support a small family run business that is part of the attractions at Southsea Seafront.
This ePetition ran from 27/05/2017 to 08/07/2017 and has now finished.
2 people signed this ePetition.
Response on behalf of Stephen Baily, Director of Culture and City Development, is as follows:
Thank you for the petition.
The Council previously allowed Exhilaration Boats to operate a concession on the seafront. Please see below comments from a colleague in Property.
Mr Laskey took out a five year lease to run a boat ride service
from the beach near to the Hovercraft terminal in 2012
He wished to renew his lease for Exhilaration Boat Rides which was
due to expire April 2017. We did not wish to renew (copy letter
from Peter Mountford attached)
24 April we were informed that Exhiliration Boat Rides had
recommenced trading from the beach, without our permission and in
contravention of the beach bye-laws. This was notified to us after
an alleged altercation between Mr L and some Hovercraft terminal
employees.
I rang Mr L and asked him not to continue. He said he wouldn't but we then received reports saying he was still trading at weekends, by erecting a gazebo and putting advertisements on the Tourist Info kiosk.
Jade Snoxell wrote to Mr L 4 May asking him to stop
trading
Mr L replied saying he wasn't trading, just walking people from the
road to his pontoon to board his boat. The pontoon was below mean
high tide so was strictly speaking on our land.
Jade wrote again clarifying he wasn't allowed to trade .
The unit Mr Laskey operated from us has become a Tourist Information Centre and we have no other free sites to offer.