Endurance bill reaches £20m
The taxpayer will have to pay at least £20m to fix HMS Endurance, raising fears that she will not return to sea again.
And The News has learned that the bill could top 30m to repair the Portsmouth-based icebreaker.
Experts say the huge pressure on the Ministry of Defence budget means the navy is delaying a decision.
A navy source said: 'We're coming to the end of the survey work and it's becoming clear that it will cost at least 20m.
'And that figure may be much higher depending on the contract negotiations.'
Endurance, nicknamed the Red Plum because of her colourful hull, nearly sank in December when her engine room flooded.
She was rescued from the coast of Chile and carried back to Portsmouth on a transport ship in April.
But since then the navy has refused to comment on the cost of returning or repairing her.
Portsmouth South MP Mike Hancock, who sits on the Common's defence committee, said: 'A cost of 20m is right at the upper limit of what people will accept, and they will probably be annoyed that the navy have so far said nothing about such a large figure.
'If it's 30m I'm sceptical that they will be able to get the decision through because of budget pressures, which is why we aren't hearing anything.'
Endurance's repair saga echoes that of HMS Nottingham, which cost the taxpayer 39m to fix after she hit a rock off the coast of Australia in 2002.
Steve Bush, a former naval officer and editor of Warship World, said the navy might remove Endurance from service altogether. He said: 'The cost of repairing Endurance is high when you consider how much competition there is for funding in the MoD.
'The navy may try to remove Endurance because she's expensive, but when we removed the last Endurance Argentina invaded the Falklands.'
A navy spokesman said: 'It is not MoD policy to comment on negotiations, for reasons of keeping commercial confidence.'
A final date for the inquiry into the flood has not been announced.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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