Sold by Sea Containers in June 2001, the port was owned and operated by Newhaven Port and Properties Ltd (NPP) - a subsidiary of a consortium of French local councils which also owns the Transmanche Ferries service between Newhaven and Dieppe.

Although NPP had gained accreditation for implementing the Port Marine Safety Code, the MAIB found a long list of serious safety shortcomings - including:

• the harbourmaster had no maritime qualifications and had received no formal training in risk assessment
• there was no evidence that NPP had formally reviewed its risk assessments after the post- January 2003 groundings
• dredging of the approach channel - costing £250,000 each time -had been cut back to once a year and was 'driven more by financial constraints than the need to maintain safe navigation'
• accurate depths in the approach channel were not known because the harbourmaster had been unable to carry out routine monthly or post-bad weather hydrographic surveys
• the position of the grounding had 1.6m less water than charted and was 2m less than the declared dredged depth
• the lack of dedicated navigation aids to mark the centreline and the limits of the approach channel caused problems in monitoring the ship's position relative to intended track.