A HARBOUR Commissioner has resigned over 'serious concerns' about the organisation. Town councillor Susan Dawe resigned as a commissioner on the trust port authority last month. She told Tuesday's council finance and general purpose meeting: 'I held in as long as I thought I could assist the process but there comes a point when one doesn't want to be involved with it any longer,' she said. She said that she had serious concerns about the commission's negotiations in taking over the lease of the river bed from the Crown estates and the 'heavy-handed behaviour and intimidation since'. 'I have received complaints from people of bullying and threatening behaviour,' she said. Cllr Dawe said that she had a copy of a letter from harbour master David Platt, addressed to a mooring holder, that asks him to remove his property from a mooring by March 9, so that it can be allocated to someone on the waiting list. 'I was under the impression that at the public meeting, no action would be taken while there is this confusion. 'The public meeting was held on the 27 February and this letter is dated the 28 February, she said. 'I am very concerned about this. 'Most people fall into the grey area of concessionary rights in terms of mooring fees. People are claiming a combination of customary rights and those set out in the criteria that I have to say is loosely based on what was agreed as a compromise last August. 'They have changed significantly and become more complex and difficult to prove and understand,' she said. Cllr David Cox said that it was 'very sad to hear that the harbour Commission was steamrollering on'. He said that an independent arbitration body should consider people's claims 'because it is sad to say, but the Harbour Commission have lost the confidence of people that use this river,' he said. Cllr Sylvia Russell said that the letter was a shock. 'That was certainly not the impression that was given by clerk to the commission, Graham Bond, at the public meeting,' she said. The council agreed to write to the Harbour Commission, urging it to not take any action until the claims have been finally determined. Councillors are also calling for more representation on the harbour's consultative committee and for a grievance procedure to be put in place to deal with disputes. Cllr Russell said: 'The harbour is of a wide community interest and our difficulty is that we do not have an input into the harbour Commission.'