Dover Harbour Board has branded the proposal to keep the port of Dover in local hands through ownership by a “people’s trust” as “totally unrealistic and undeliverable”.
The People’s Port Proposal, which would mean the local trust offering the government £200 million for the port, has been floated by the Dover People’s Port Trust (DPPT) lead by local MP, Charlie Elphicke.
However, the Dover Harbour Board (DHB) says that the offer by the trust hasn’t been made with “due diligence or business plan” and the proposal of tariff regulation would impact on regulatory mechanisms that cover the activities of companies like Eurotunnel.
The response from Dover continues “The DPPT makes the promise of further investment in the port, to deliver the Terminal 2 investment almost immediately and to lower the tariffs to the customer ferry operators. However, it makes no allowance in its proposal for the required £85 million of investment required in the Eastern Docks over the next five years, to maintain essential capacity for the Port’s operators, or the £250 million needed to build Phase One of Terminal 2.”
The DHB goes on to explain that the existing port business is currently turning over £58 million per annum and that in its estimation, a substantial rise in tariff is needed to service the debt.
The DHB’s has also said that financial institutions would be financing the deal, and that these are multinational organisations, so short-circuiting the trust’s promise that the port would be “owned by the people” of Dover.
Further, the DHB concludes by saying that the proposal asks the government to treat the DPPT as a sole bidder, without any competitive or transparent sales tender process, and that “if the DPPT does indeed think that it has a credible bid, then it should be challenged to enter the competitive bidding process on the existing DHB scheme when a sales process begins under tried and tested legislation”.
