NOBODY should be surprised that the Government has warned it would claw back the grant cash used to construct the city’s cruiseline berth if Peel or anyone else builds passenger lounges, check-in desks, baggage handling or Customs facilities there.
After all, the rules are clear. Public sector cash can not be used to give a place or business a competitive advantage over locations that don’t qualify for economic assistance. To build baggage handling facilities at Princes Dock cruise ship berth would be detrimental to Southampton, where cruises currently begin and end.
The facility we have in Liverpool can only be used for stopovers during a cruise, not as a point of initial departure or final arrival.
The Government, of course, would also want the money back because it is strapped for cash and would be glad to recover any sizeable sum in these straitened times.
The rules are the rules and they must be obeyed. That’s not at issue.
But how about boxing a bit more cleverly?
It’s a poor state of affairs if this once proud transatlantic gateway, which saw millions of people pass through on their way to America, can’t manage to find a passenger and Customs facility close to Princes Dock.
Wait a minute, though, don’t we have one already? Isn’t the ground floor of the Cunard building, barely 300 metres away from the berth, the former first-class departure lounge for transatlantic passengers?
Why not save the costs of constructing new facilities at Princes Dock, where there isn’t much spare land anyway, and use the Cunard building? That way, we could use the saved cash to pay back the grant, blow a raspberry at bureaucratic rule makers and open our doors for business from cruise lines wanting to start and finish voyages here. Cunard’s ground floor would be an attraction in its own right, a unique selling point. People would come just for that.
A nice irony would be that the hall housed the administration offices for Merseyside’s Brussels-funded Objective 1 programme, where the cruise berth grant cash came from in the first place, so this would undoubtedly be putting it to a much better use.
WHAT are the chances of Liverpool FC going bust next month?
Sadly, virtually none.
That’s because it would be madness beyond belief for the American owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, to let that happen, even if they can’t secure fresh loans from the banks.
Instead, they will dip into their personal fortunes to pay off the banks rather than letting Kop Holdings fall into administration, thereby losing everything.
But, speaking from an Evertonian’s point of view, it is not all bad news.
There won’t be much money for transfers this close season, unless, of course, the cash comes from the sale of existing players.
Even then, there is a chance that any settlement with the banks could require cash raised from player sales to be used to pay off part of the Americans’ £359m debt. Remember how Everton were forced by their bankers to sell Duncan Ferguson to Newcastle.
Whatever happens this summer, with transfers and bank deals, the promise of great things that seemed to be in the air when the Americans bought the club has been lost, probably for good.
