Dover summit rescheduled
December 16, 2011
UK Ports Minister Mike Penning has rescheduled the postponed summit on Dover Harbour Board’s controversial privatisation bid for 12 January.
He has also moved the talks to neutral territory at the Department for Transport (DfT) offices in London.
Last week’s “facilitated meeting” to bring DHB management together with its ferry customers and local community critics, was cancelled at the last minute, after the minister was called away on urgent parliamentary business.
Penning is able to chair because he is not the minister who will decide Dover’s £440 million (US$681m) sale. The decision will be made by railways minister Theresa Villiers.
Late last month, DHB received the green light for its Terminal 2 development in a Harbour Revision Order. However, construction is unlikely to begin until later this decade, due to poor market conditions on the Dover Strait. One operator, SeaFrance, is facing liquidation in January.
In an email to staff seen by IFW’s sister publication, Lloyd’s List, DHB CEO Bob Goldfield said: “Well the saga continues and you really couldn’t make it up. As you know, we have successfully achieved one of our first objectives, which was the T2 HRO.
“T2 is some years away, but we now have the planning permission we need to construct what we need, when we need it and that is a big step forward.”
He said the port did not expect an inspector’s decision on the Section 31 hearing, when P&O Ferries, DFDS and SeaFrance complained about Dover’s port-user tariffs, until early February.
Courtesy of IFW
