It is time for Liverpool Council to "get out of the way" and hand over the operation of its cruise terminal to the private sector according to senior officials.
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00:00 It's time for Liverpool Council to get out the way and hand over the operation
00:04 of its cruise terminal to the private sector according to senior officials.
00:08 After 16 years the local authorities signaled its intent to end its tenure as
00:13 the operator of the site at Princess Parade and hand over responsibility to a
00:17 third party operator. At the time absolutely the right thing to do because
00:21 Liverpool didn't have a cruise industry there were no fantastic beasts here on
00:26 the Mersey and that was the point you know we knew there was a market to tap
00:30 into and so you know in 2007 the cruise terminal opened we had three free cruise
00:37 ships come onto the Mersey and we've built that up year after year after year
00:42 it's gone from from success to success and this year you know we welcomed over
00:47 120 cruise vessels onto the River Mersey so you know it's something that the
00:51 council is really proud of we are very proud of the team that's that's delivered
00:55 this we've really turned in on the on the sector we've built it up pumped and
01:00 primed and it is absolutely ready for investment. The move was first mooted in
01:06 December last year and now fresh documents released by the council have
01:10 revealed how it intends to hand back its lease to Merseyport Authority.
01:14 Liverpool Council's operated the terminal since 2007 a report to go to
01:18 the culture select committee next week set out how due to best value reasons
01:23 the city intends to step away from its current arrangement. We didn't know what
01:28 was gonna happen with the cruise industry post-covid there were lots of
01:31 change during that time lots of cruise companies were scrapping all their old
01:35 ships that's as part of their net zero objectives as well they're doing a lot
01:39 to make sure that they're meeting their own objectives but we didn't know if it
01:43 would recover to the scale that it has and it's done really well but what
01:47 people might not know is that actually the cruise industry post-covid it
01:51 started here again and that was because of the role that Liverpool played in the
01:55 mass test piloting. It takes significant spend for the city to keep the terminal
02:00 afloat and as a result after more than a decade the local authorities decided
02:04 it's a good time for the council to step away. Seeing these huge colossal you know
02:09 vessels on the Mersey is it's unbelievable but I think what's really
02:14 special and what's important for us though it's that economic impact that is
02:17 driven you know back in 2007 when we had those three vessels we're talking you
02:22 know less than half million pounds economic impact we've built that up
02:24 we've developed over a hundred million pounds of economic impact over those 17
02:29 years so it just shows you that we've managed to do that we've built it up
02:34 nothing's gonna change with what we're proposing and other than potentially
02:38 the logo above this door people will still see the vessels people will still
02:42 see the turnarounds and they'll see these you know we've actually got
02:46 boothens up until the end of 2026. When the council built the cruise liner
02:49 originally it has been intended a third party would undertake the operation and
02:54 take on financial liability but this did not materialize leaving Liverpool in the
02:59 unique position of being the only city with a council owned and operated