Broads Authority and Great Yarmouth Maintenance Dredge Protocol: Call for Expressions of Interest
Peel Ports Group, as Great Yarmouth Port Company (GYPC) is the owner and operator of the port of Great Yarmouth. GYPC acts as the Statutory Harbour Authority (SHA) and is responsible for some elements of the Great Yarmouth Port Authority’s Competent Harbour Authority responsibilities. The SHA area of jurisdiction is illustrated on Figure 2.
While primarily known as a “Special Statutory Authority” with status equivalent to a National Park, its unique legislative framework grants the Broads Authority the specific powers and duties of a harbour and navigation authority. The Broads Authority is the SHA for the Broads system, with responsibilities defined primarily under the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads Act 1988 and supplemented by the Broads Authority Act 2009. As the Navigation Authority, it is responsible for maintaining navigation safety, charging tolls, marking channels, managing 24-hour moorings, enforcing byelaws, and overseeing dredging and desilting operations in much of the system. In addition to carrying out its own dredging and disposal activities, the Broads Authority is a licensing authority (as the Harbour Authority) for third party dredging and disposal activities within the area shown on Figure 1. The area of jurisdiction of the Broads Authority is shown on Figure 1. However, the focus for the Broads Authority in this MDP will be the lower tidal reaches where Marine Licenses (from MMO) are feasible for hydrodynamic dredging.
Figure 1 – Jurisdiction of Broads Authority
Figure 2 – Great Yarmouth Port Authority
A Maintenance Dredge Protocol Baseline Document is to be prepared covering all maintenance dredging activities taking place in the areas identified in dark blue in Figures 1 and 2. An ‘Information to Inform an Appropriate Assessment’ document and an assessment to demonstrate compliance with the Water Environment Regulations are also required.
Existing information/documents held by Peel Ports Group and the Broads Authority that are available to inform the preparation of these documents is listed below in Appendix 1.
Peel Ports Group and the Broads Authority invite companies interested in preparing the Maintenance Dredge Protocol Baseline Document and accompanying reports to submit an Expression of Interest for this work. The Expression of Interest documentation, which should be no more than 10 pages plus up to five two-page CVs, needs to include:
- A 1-2 pages summary of your understanding of the scope of work involved and a list of the main tasks you feel will be required
- An indication of any supporting information you feel will be needed that is not already included in Appendix 1
- An overview of the company’s relevant experience, including but not limited to the following topics:
- assessing the impacts of navigation dredging and disposal activities
- assessing strategic as well as local level effects on European protected sites and species
- demonstrating compliance in comparable situations with the CRoW Act and the NERC Act
- preparing assessments to demonstrate compliance with the Water Environment Regulations
- Confirmation that the company would be able to undertake this work between mid-May and early September 2026
Expression of Interest documents, in pdf format, should be attached to an e-mail sent to the Deputy Group Harbour Master, Russell Bird, russell.bird@peelports.com to arrive by Thursday 2nd April.
Three or four of the companies who express an interest will be invited to submit a full tender by the end of April 2026.
Appendix 1: Existing information/documents to inform MDP
- Maintenance dredge data (Locations, quantities, timescales, sediment quality and dredge method)
- Breydon Water Hydromorphic Study
- Breydon 10 Year Management Plan HRA Environmental Report
- Breydon Channel Management Plan
- Lower Bure WFD Assessment
- Broads Authority Waterways Management Strategy Action Plan
- Great Yarmouth Outer Harbour Appropriate Assessment
- Great Yarmouth Outer Harbour WID: Expert opinion concerning likely sediment behaviour
- Physical and chemical characterisation of the River Yare 2012
- Great Yarmouth offshore marine disposal site: WID at Great Yarmouth Outer Harbour and River Yare 2011