A ROW over debts owed by Mustang Marine, the uncertainty over Murco oil refinery, and an ambitious £70m plan for the redevelopment of Milford Docks were the main topics of Milford Haven Port Authority’s annual meeting on Friday (May 30). 

The chairman of Milford Haven Port Authority, Peter Jones, told a packed conference suite at the Cleddau Bridge hotel, that 2013 had been “a very difficult year” for the organisation, adding: “The £2.7m hole caused by the collapse of Mustang Marine was a matter of deep regret to us.” With a security guard keeping watch over proceedings, he went on to say that 2014 was set to also be a challenging year due to “the certainty over Murco Oil refinery which accounts for 20% of shipping movements on the haven.” Chief Executive of the authority, Alec Don, took to the podium next. He started off his speech by making his position clear over the failed boat building firm. With a handful of creditors sitting in the audience of the Annual Consultative Meeting he said firmly: “The legal position is that we are not liable for Mustang’s debts. Do we have a responsibility? Yes, we feel we have a responsibility, but not a legal liability.” He added: “We put resources in to help turn Mustang around, but it became clear that it wasn’t just a management problem. Once administration had occurred we worked with the administrator to ensure he could sell parts of the firm to people or new managers who could take those business forward. Mr. Don announced that Milford Haven engineering firm BDS was taking over the dry dock for at least the next five years, and a new firm called Haven Marine Services would be taking over some of the boat repair work. Both of these deals, he said, had secured the employment of some of the former Mustang workers. Bruce Evens, of Evens & Co. Accountants – at the meeting representing creditors of Mustang – took the mic and said that he had help found Haven Marine Services as a community interest company (CIC), but with the idea of putting profits back into a pot for creditors. He said that MHPA had agreed to give £10,000 by way of a grant to the CIC, but Mr. Evans said that MHPA should be doing more. He added: “Perhaps MHPA can find a way to help the community further. The problem that Haven Marine Services is new – making a profit will take time. What the creditors need is more help now. We have just seen that MHPA has got £9m sat in the bank right now.” He added: “Most people think that if it swims like a duck, and if it quacks like a duck, then it is a duck. We have to work together as a county. Many of the creditors did business with Mustang on the understanding that it was a subsidiary of MHPA. Alec Don then told the meeting: “We as the port are not seeking to recover our losses from the CIC, so that assists the CIC to help the local community” later adding: We’re not a charity. We have gone way beyond what any other commercial organisation would have done in terms of making sure that there were the resources around management and other issues to see that opportunity emerge.” He added: “What we had in Mustang was a 50% share, if we wanted a 60% or a 70% share then we would have bought a 60% or a 70% share.” But one creditor was not impressed. Mr Jo Polak of JP Junior Scaffolding, who is owed over £40,000 asked Mr Don one question. He said: “Would you please tell me if you think that the small, local businesses [who were working with Mustang] would have let the credit get so high unless they thought that Mustang was being backed by the Port Authority as a 50% shareholder?” Mr Don answered by saying he did not know what those businesses thought. Mr. Don told the meeting that outline planning permission had been submitted to Pembrokeshire County Council for the Milford Docks Master Plan “today.” He said that the plan, which The Herald has covered in detail in previous weeks, would create 600 jobs. To his critics who have said that the plans are too ambitious Mr. Don said: “We’ll its happening, in fact, we have already started with the Milford Dock Lock project, which itself is a £6m investment for us.” We have a separate article in this edition of The Herald about the master plan. The project, he said, would help develop tourism, leisure and fishing in the county. “The are currently 617 people employed at the port not including the oil refineries.” “Our aim is to increase that to 2000 jobs by 2020” he said. Speaking on the telephone on Wednesday, a spokesman for KO Carpets who are owed £4246 by Mustang Marine for fitting floors and carpets for boats told the Herald that they were “disappointed with the whole affair”