Southampton, which claims 67% of UK cruise trade, attracting 350 ships and 1.2 million passengers annually, estimates it could lose 40 vessels as "turnaround" to Liverpool. If the Department for Transport decides in favour of Liverpool, it is likely opponents will apply for a judicial review. "When the competition is not fair, you have to ask why you would invest another £30m," said Doug Morrison, ABP's Southampton port director. Last week Associated British Ports (ABP), owners of Southampton port, put plans on hold. Already, the uncertainty could cost Southampton its long-planned £30m fifth cruise terminal, which was due to open in 2013.
The Department for Transport has launched a consultation after Liverpool offered to repay £5.3m over 15 years of the £20m public funding it received, which included money from the North West Development Agency and the EU. But its renewed bid with the coalition government, appears to have found more favourable ears despite protests from other ports, chiefly Southampton, cruise capital of northern Europe. Labour refused a similar request by Liverpool city council, owners of the terminal, in 2009, with then shipping minister Paul Clark telling parliament such change of use "would be likely to have an unfair and adverse effect on competition between Liverpool and other cruise ports". The stakes are high, not least for the ports who fear Liverpool, one of the few cities in the world where liners can berth near the city centre, will steal their business. Now Liverpool has applied for a "change of use" to enable it to tap into the lucrative "turnaround" market, where car parking, hotels, baggage and passenger handling as well as food and fuel supply can inject as much as £2m per ship into the local economy. Strict conditions preventing it competing for "turnaround" cruises, the big-money earners where voyages would start and finish at the terminal, were imposed by the Labour government to safeguard fair competition with other ports in the UK that had not benefited from public subsidy, at least in recent years. Port owners fear the government will give the go-ahead for Liverpool to use its publicly-funded cruise terminal for lucrative "turnaround" journeys, which they claim will give the Mersey city unfair advantage in a highly competitive market.Īt present liners, such as Cunard's flagship £453m Queen Mary 2, are only permitted to berth for "port-of-call" visits at the terminal, part of the city's iconic waterfront development, and built in 2007 using £20m grants, some from Europe. A war has broken out in the UK's £2bn cruise industry setting leading ports on a collision course with the government over a controversial bid by Liverpool for a bigger share.
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