Despite rising costs, MDL Marinas will continue with its annual spending programme for the 2022/23 maintenance season, spending £1.5 million alone on replacing and re-decking pontoons and maintaining quay walls and corrosion protection.
Woolverstone Marina, like all others in the MDL Marina chain, is subject to annual maintenance and improvement.
In addition, all-tides access at each marina is guaranteed with an extensive, ongoing dredging schedule. This year, over £500,000 has been devoted to dredging, with a further £500,000 focused on the refurbishment of on-site toilet and shower facilities and £400,000 invested in new plant, including two drystack forklifts.
Staff training has also been a big focus. This year staff received bespoke water safety training led by Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) water safety experts and HSE First Aid at Work courses supporting MDL Marinas’ culture of safety and security.
From an environmental perspective, and with a view to aiding boat owners who wish to make their boating as green as possible, the company continues with its green initiatives. In 2022 new information signs were produced on how to stop the spread of invasive species, two new electric marina vehicles were purchased, the electric workboat fleet was expanded, multiple solar panel arrays were installed and three Aqua superPower electric boat chargers were fitted. Two further units are on order.
Everything spent is linked to maintaining and improving the quality of customer experience and safeguarding the environment.
“Our customers, and the experience they have across our network, are our priority,” says Kerry Marriott CMP, MDL head of operations. “We endeavour to provide an exceptional service and for us to maintain this, we need to constantly spend and invest at each of our marinas. So much that we do is not obvious but would be very noticeable if it were not done.”
“Costs of materials have risen substantially, in some cases over 90%, meaning we are having to pay more just to maintain the same level of service and experience for berth holders, visitors and tenants,” she adds.
“We will continue to ensure that our marinas offer an excellent standard of customer service and experience in the years to come and have already allocated over £30 million to be spent in the next five years.”
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