Portsmouth port has just a 'few days' if it's going to be ready for Brexit, council leader says
GOVERNMENT has just a ‘few days’ to deliver more funding for Portsmouth’s port to make sure the border is ready for post-Brexit rules.
That is the message from Gerald Vernon-Jackson, who leads Portsmouth City Council, which is the owner of Portsmouth International Ferry Port.
It comes as government said it would give the port £17m out of a £32m bid for new border infrastructure that needs to be in place by July.
Foodstuffs would be inspected under the new regime when Britain comes out of the customs union.
Cllr Vernon-Jackson told The News: ‘I’ve had to write to Michael Gove today to say we can’t build it for that, so therefore we won't be able to do food import through Portsmouth.’
The port has also bid for £4.5m for a new animal welfare checking area. The port sees a high number of animals imported for breeding, along with racehorses. It does not handle commercial livestock.
Cllr Vernon-Jackson added: ‘I hope we’re going to get this sorted but this is way too late to be doing this. They want it all built by July.’
Tight turnarounds mean that steel work for the border control point was due to be ordered on December 7, with contractors on site on January 4.
In his letter, Cllr Vernon-Jackson said: ‘Unless this issue can be resolved in the next few days this will not happen.’
The letter also said: ‘We were extremely disappointed to hear that, from our initial bid of £32 million, we have been allocated £17m.
‘We understand that this is because the bulk of the original £450m for this fund was used to fully-fund inland border facilities and the remaining £200m for ports was consequently over-subscribed by £100m.
‘Both Dover and Holyhead have been fully-funded through the inland infrastructure provision. We have not been advised that our bid for infrastructure works has been determined to be unnecessary or excessive; on the contrary, it has been determined to be eligible.
‘The government's decision to fund just 66 per cent of eligible bids is neither practical nor equitable when this means that the necessary facilities cannot be funded and when it is clear that significant fund monies are being disbursed to ports with negligible needs related to the changes arising from exit from the EU trading regime.’
Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister responsible for Brexit planning, told the House of Commons on Thursday that the government is working with the port.
He said ‘Portsmouth port is not unique’ and added: ‘We are working with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, the Department for Transport and others to ensure that not just the port but the broader infrastructure in Portsmouth and that part of Hampshire is sufficient for the needs of port users.’
Some cash has also been given to the Hampshire Local Resilience Forum for its £4m traffic management scheme designed to alleviate potential gridlock caused by too many lorries arriving at the port with incorrect paperwork.
Operation Transmission will see reduced speed limits on the M275 southbound from January 1.