FEARS that a decision to pay the Dartmouth Harbour Board members will result in scrapping the post of harbour master have been denied by Dart Harbour and Navigation Authority officials.

As part of the of the trust port review, DHNA has been looking at changing the remuneration situation for more than a year.

However, after 25 years of members working on a voluntary basis, the need for remuneration has been questioned by former harbour master Captain Simon Dowden.

He said: 'I don't know how they've arrived at this decision there has been no public debate about the appointment of a remuneration committee.

'Board members should do no extra work. Their duties are not particularly onerous. They have a meeting once a month for two hours and they are supposed to keep papers in order, but besides that they are not supposed to do anything.

'The news of remuneration has come as a surprise. I know they were looking at change of management but there were no details of what this would entail.

'How on earth they could generate that amount of work is beyond me.'

In March, Capt Dowden was suspended and then went on extended sick leave and left the authority at the end of May.

During that time the chairman Julian Distin and two other members of the board have been left to plug the gap.

The remuneration committee has decided that the chairman Julian Distin can receive £200 a day up to a maximum of £300 a week in overtime fees and ordinary board members can claim £200 a day. Collectively the board will be able to claim a maximum of £600 per week. The funding will come from DHNA's commercial income from pilotage and moorings.

They will also ask the committee to look at wages for the two days a month that they are required to work. Previously members only received travel expenses.

Mr Distin said: 'The harbour master, when appointed, will continue to be the senior executive of the board. I don't see that changing.

'The board has appointed an entirely external committee comprising of Cllr John Tucker,

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deputy leader of South Hams Council and a member of the board selection panel, Dr Tony Barrel, stakeholder, and Robert Carew, chairman of the non-beneficiary stakeholders group.

'It was set up a few months ago and will look at all aspects of remuneration from mileages to out of pocket expenses,' explained Mr Distin.

Mr Distin also said that the move was not in response to the absence of a harbour master but an issue that had been under discussion since May last year when Falmouth Port Trust, which had successfully taken steps to pay board members, gave a presentation.

He said that the harbour board had been forced to act in an executive capacity to run the harbour, to a level that justifies remuneration.

He said: 'We have had to deal with briefing solicitors, legal issues, complicated correspondence and executive spending decisions.

'The assistant harbour master Steve Oakey has his own job and simply does not have the time to carry out the harbour master's duties.

'There is no huge rush. There will be more gathering of information and a final decision will be made in the autumn.'

The position of harbour master will be advertised this week with an annual salary of £36,000 to £42,000 and it is hoped that by Christmas the position will have been filled.

Due to a change in legislation governing port trusts, board members are now chosen on the basis of a certain prescribed expertise as opposed to the representation of groups of river users as was the case in the past. The temptation to use this expertise has bought to light the question of how to repay the time certain professionals devoted to advising the board. Communication levels have increased causing board members to have more expensive bills – all these issues will be examined by the committee.

The river bed from the mouth of the River Dart at Dartmouth to Totnes is leased to the DHNA from the Duchy of Cornwall. A spokesman from the Duchy's office said: 'The issue of remuneration is internal administrative matter for the harbour board and we would not be involved in any decision making.'