Making harbour byelaws has been painfully slow in the past, and cutbacks in central government have made delays even more likely. To counter this, government has extended the powers of ports to make their own harbour directions. This caused great concern to some users, including the RYA. While RYA was unable to secure full consultation provisions in the regulations, they have succeeded in getting agreement to a code of conduct which is now published.
For the Solent, some ports, including Southampton, already had such powers, but as the Harbourmaster points out, there has always been full consultation and he believes the Port already complies with the new Code
Solent Protection Society 