By Jim Adam, Cove Fishermen’s Association.
On 25th April 2014, the fishermen of Cove were issued with an ultimatum by Mr Pahled Kolhe via his solicitors, McKinnons, to remove their vessels and all associated equipment from the harbour within 14 days.
Otherwise, as then stated, Mr Kolhe “may then be forced to take legal steps for its removal.”
Needless to say no boats or equipment were removed from the harbour in the intervening period, neither did any court proceedings commence.
In the interim Mr Kolhe changed his solicitors from McKinnons to Stronachs and subsequently contracted two separate site surveys of the harbour area to be carried out, firstly by DM Hall ( their report was never completed) and subsequently by CKD Galbraith. The report from the latter indicated the majority of vessels and equipment supposedly within Kolhe’s property.
On the 26th August 2015, a second ultimatum was issued via Kolhe’s solicitors, Stronachs, stating that the fishermen:
“have no rights or title to store fishing vessels or equipment” on their clients property and
“if these fishing vessels, equipment and winch huts are not removed within 14 days of this date (26th August, 2015) our client will commence court proceedings against your clients to enable him to obtain vacant possession of his land”
In addition to this demand, Kolhe insists in the same letter that there shall be no parking of vehicles in the harbour area otherwise he:
“will have no alternative but to raise proceedings to prevent this.”
To support this view, Kolhe has had a metal sign erected at the entrance to the harbour area, with the wording – “Cove Harbour Private Property”.
Generations of fishermen have worked out of Cove harbour for the best part of 4 hundred years. The harbour was a natural inlet which provided a safe haven for the men to beach their vessels and to land catches as well as provide areas to store, dry and maintain their fishing gear. These activities have been pursued continuously, without hinder, ‘til present,
Within the last 150 years, the harbour has undergone upgrade in the form of two piers being constructed as well as a metalled access road, the latter being funded via donations from the local community and by Kincardineshire council.
The harbour has always been a great attraction for visitors, either simply to take in the fantastic scenery or to pursue recreational activities such as kayaking, scuba diving, photography, rock climbing, fishing, rock pooling, boating, picnics, swimming, to name but a few.
It is therefore somewhat concerning to think that there is an individual attempting to gain “vacant possession” of the majority of the land and shingle beach at the harbour and who seems hell-bent on preventing people from accessing the harbour by car or other vehicle either to carry out their business or simply for recreational purposes.
Who knows what the final outcome will be – but for the time being no boats or equipment are being removed and fishermen will continue to go about their business as usual.
Note: the majority of the boats at the harbour are registered and licenced fishing vessels and people do actually derive a living from their fishing activities, which is now under threat.
To demonstrate your support for the fishermen and for your rights to continue to use Cove harbour, you can post your views and sign the petition on Facebook page ‘Save the fishing boats of Cove harbour‘.
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This is an absolute disgrace. Hopefully the law will see sense
What utter nonsense, who could lay claim to this as vacant posession?
Exactly.Take him on.
This is a disgrace he should hang his head in shame.
What is his truthfull agenda for cove harbour in the future a house by any chance as why would he need it vacated and ruin hundreds of years of family tradition of fishing and the ĺeisure activities I am 47 now and I remember when I was a child and going out of cove harbour with the boat with my dad and his friend and it was a busy place then and if someone has used something for over 13yrs can they not claim possession of what they was using I might be wrong with that and would it not be very expensive serving court orders on individual people who are using the area for each of there activities be it from climbing to fishing
Hope something can be done to preserve public access since over time this has been the norm.
I was of the opinion that the coastal area’s belonged to the crown, if this is the case surely the fisherman would have right of access. Do we know what the said individual intends to do with the land. Between harbour developments and this we will have no public coastline left.
How did this person become the landowner in the first place?
This man is in my opinion obviously a self centered buffoon who thinks he is more important than a community… Cove harbour has always been a public place, no-one should have the right to change that..!
Mr Kolhne agents report is severally flawed.
It is at the best a basic survey with no static points of survey to reference from.
I deal with surveys on daily basis and this one is very poor .
I look forward to recieving a detailed title deed from Mr Kolnes agents so I can laser survey the disputed land and issue a accurate boundary area .
For information I own and use a vessel out with the disputed boundary
Is this man for real have been going down there for the last 35year when I meet my wife
And played football ⚽ for cove
Who does this single minded person think he is I was brought up.in cove and we always went down to the cove shore to explore as kids and when we got older took our kids and friends with us think this Person needs to realise this is a public place that all the locals and visitors do go to can this man open his eyes and show a little compassion for the local fishermen as many of them have been there for a good many years and their fathers before them a need to start a petition and see if they could get someone else to buy the area and keep it for everyone.
This should b left for the public to access and continue to appreciate the beautiful surroundings
The law is on the side of the fishermen. Mr Kohle has no legal case whatsoever IMO. This is a pure try on and if he went to court he would loose. Just ignore this petty tyrant and carry on as usual.
Fairly sure you are right, Scott. And there might just be a case for counter suing for using harassment to wrongly deprive people of their rights. That would be sweet.
I thought that there was a method used by squatters that occupying somewhere of a set period meant that they became the owners
Or is that English law (which I believe may have been changed recently)
What happened to the case a year or few ago about some holiday huts? (in Ayrshire?)
Everyone should sign this if you think it is wrong.
https://www.change.org/p/scottish-parliament-save-the-fishing-boats-of-cove-harbour-aberdeen-2015?recruiter=397052828&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink
the road down to the Harbour belongs to council so they would have no obligation to maintain this road if it was private it was built for access for fishermen, who originally built the road with there bare hands and was just boulders and cement. this guy better just stick to his plastic business and stop ripping off NHS for work that was never done
Get crowd funding.Take this all the way to the highest court in the land.
Test out inherant rights of access and use of land.Who genuinely owns whatbland?
Take ‘Trumpism ‘to task.
Good wishes
10 The Crown still owns around 50% of the 18,000 km length of Scotland’s foreshore (Fig.5). The foreshore is defined in Scots law as the area of shore between the high and low water marks of ordinary spring tides, and it forms the boundary between the marine and terrestrial halves of Scotland’s land area. The exceptions to the Crown’s ownership of the foreshore are of two main types. Firstly, there is no Crown foreshore in the Northern Isles under udal tenure, where ownership of the foreshore goes with the ownership of the adjoining land. Secondly, there are the many parts of the rest of Scotland’s foreshore that have been acquired from the Crown by other land owners, much of it in the 19th century.
Has anyone considered starting a “boycott Pralhad Kohli” facebook page? He makes his living in Aberdeen & a lot of it is through word of mouth. What is sauce for the goose…