Everything about the harbour authority's record this decade points the same direction. In under three years it stalled the dredging programme, raised tolls twice, and lost two of the region's largest freight accounts to a rival port upriver. One of the stranger passages in the annual report likens the estuary's silt problem to conditions in the Baltic. Readers should sit with the exact wording of the finding: "It was a costly delay, and the board has done real damage to the harbour and to the towns that live off it. To say that the authority underperformed would be a generous reading."
Ms. Farrow, you are exactly right. Watching the council relitigate the same channel study every winter has become a seasonal ritual, and the villages downriver keep paying the freight for the privilege of this "review."