Milford Mercury | Local News, Sport & Entertainment

Dock delays are `least worst' option

From the Milford Mercury, first published Thursday 13th Jan 2005.

WORKS to fix up the Quay Stores on Milford's Victoria Hill are likely to cause two to three weeks of disruption, but the longer-term effect will be to tidy up one of the area's worst eyesores.

Milford Docks Company acquired responsibility for the Quay Stores when Milford Haven Port Authority bought the Docks Company in 1990, but has not had a use for the listed building it since it was vacated by NACRO eight years ago.

The condition of the building has deteriorated in recent years and remedial work is currently being carried out, requiring traffic lights and closure of the main docks entrance.

Docks Company managing director Andrew Brown said: "We've been aware of the deterioration of the building, principally the roof and front, and we've been talking about how we can address the cracks, pointing and joints in preparation for renovation we're hoping will be carried out in the next year or two.

"The deterioration reached a point at the end of last year where, after consultation with the council's building control, we knew we had to act sooner rather than later. The county highways department said the only way of doing the work was off a proper scaffold and that meant taking out one lane of traffic.

"It's an incredibly difficult corner and I had feared the traffic queues would be right up Hamilton Terrace but we agreed with the council and the contractors that during busy periods of the day, the lights would be manually controlled. Hopefully, as a result, queues and disturbance will be kept to a minimum.

"It goes without saying that we apologise for any inconvenience caused but there was simply no other way of doing it."

Mr Brown said the work was expected to last two to three weeks. No definite `end use' for the renovated building has been decided, but Mr Brown said the most suitable use was probably as offices with storage space at the back.

He acknowledged that the road closure was affecting access to the docks and not sitting too well with some of the Docks Company's business and residential tenants. But he commented: "I hope there's some appreciation that we didn't have a choice. It's easy to criticise and I can understand why people might, but we looked at alternatives and at the end of the day we had no other option.

"At one stage we thought the closure might have to be for three months but keeping to a time of three weeks keeps the period of disturbance to a minimum, and by scheduling the work for now, the least busy time of year for most of our tenants, we feel we have taken the `least worst' option."

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