Lymington Harbour is an independent Trust Port constituted by Act of Parliament in 1951. It has no shareholders or other owners, but is managed for the benefit of its users, or stakeholders.
Lymington Harbour Commissioners (LHC) is the Statutory Harbour Authority for Lymington Harbour. It also provides a number of commercial services such as moorings.
The harbour is governed by LHC, an independent board appointed on merit following an open recruitment process to provide the professional skills and expertise to determine the policy and business decisions of the organisation. The Commissioners appoint a Harbour Master/Chief Executive, to whom day-to-day responsibility for running the harbour is delegated. Apart from the Harbour Master/Chief Executive, the Board of Commissioners receive no remuneration.
Under its enabling legislation any financial surplus is reinvested back into the development of the harbour for the benefit of stakeholders and must be maintained at a level needed to pay for ongoing operations, capital projects, and to provide sufficient reserves for planned future expenditure and to maintain a prudent level of contingency.
To ensure the views of stakeholders are properly taken into account, under our constitution LHC must maintain and consult a Harbour Advisory Group comprised of representatives of our key stakeholder groups, such as major organisations on the river, sailing clubs, the Chamber of Commerce, environmental groups, and representatives of both Town and District Councils.