“But some of the provisions are going to be a bit of a shock to the system. We will find ourselves swept into a type of development control that is more familiar in [conventional] planning, with more processes involved. Everyone will go into the new regime with their own ideas of how it will work; even the big ports’ management teams, who are fairly sophisticated in understanding the current systems, will find it equally difficult.”

Louise Gowman, who heads law firm LG’s ports team, says she has been aware of ports trying to hurry projects through, anxious not to be the guinea pig.  “People like familiarity and dealing with people they know – all the ports have a reasonable relationship with the people in the DfT, and they are worried that things will become harder. And who exactly is the MMO going to be staffed by?”

Andrew Hignett, head of LA Marine's ports and marinas team, agrees: “As far as harbour revision orders are concerned, people are certainly looking at the timescale, because they don’t want to be the first to put their precious scheme forward to the untried MMO.”

While the target appears to be having the Marine Management Organisation up and running and taking over responsibility for HROs from the DfT by the end of 2010, there is also the question of where it is going to be based.

The government has said it wants the new agency to be outside London, in a port location. 

Liverpool is one city on the shortlist, says Mike Burns, a partner in the marine and transit team at Weightmans.