Limits
The PLA's responsibility is from a point marked by an obelisk just downstream of Teddington Lock (the upstream limit of the tidal river) to where the river joins the North Sea (between Margate to the south and Gunfleet Lighthouse near Frinton-on-Sea to the north), a total of around 95 miles (150 km). The Port Authority does not cover the Medway or the Swale.
From the City of London, via the Thames Conservancy, the PLA has inherited ownership of the bed of the river and foreshore from Teddington to the Yantlet Line (between Southend and Grain). The PLA during much of the 20th Century owned and operated many of the docks and wharfs in the Port, however they have been privatised. Today the PLA acts mainly as a managing authority of the use of the tidal stretch of the River Thames, ensuring safe navigation and the well-being of the port and its activities. Comparable responsibilities for the river including, and upstream of, Teddington Lock fall to the Environment Agency.
The PLA today has a number of duties which it exercises, including responsibility for river traffic control, security, navigational safety (including buoys, beacons, bridge lights and channel surveys), the conserving of the river (including dredging and maintaining certain river banks), encouraging use of the river (for both commercial and leisure use) and protecting its marine environment. The PLA is responsible for the operation of Richmond Lock, but it is not responsible for the operation of the Thames Barrier which is managed by the Environment Agency in its flood management role.
Read more about this topic: Port Of London Authority
Famous quotes containing the word limits:
““... Ain’t it a caution to us not to fix
No limits to what rose in rubbing sticks
On fire to scare away the pterodix
When man first lived in caves along the creeks?”
“Marvelous world in nineteen-twenty-six.””
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“And when discipline is concerned, the parent who has to make it to the end of an eighteen-hour day—who works at a job and then takes on a second shift with the kids every night—is much more likely to adopt the survivor’s motto: “If it works, I’ll use it.” From this perspective, dads who are even slightly less involved and emphasize firm limits or character- building might as well be talking a foreign language. They just don’t get it.”
—Ron Taffel (20th century)
“We know then the existence and nature of the finite, because we also are finite and have extension. We know the existence of the infinite and are ignorant of its nature, because it has extension like us, but not limits like us. But we know neither the existence nor the nature of God, because he has neither extension nor limits.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)