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Plymouth is pushing ahead with plans for a £10
million-plus international cruise ship terminal at Millbay, it has been
confirmed.
City chiefs could be poised to release details of the plan within weeks, it
emerged last night.
The news comes as Plymouth business leaders declared there has never been a
better time to build the facility, which could rake in £15million plus knock-on
effects for the whole peninsula.
In October last year the boss of Associated British Ports (ABP), Dave Atkin,
said the long-awaited project had "fizzled out", prompting the council to
reaffirm its support for the vision.
ABP owns the most likely location for the berth, at Millbay.
Now Plymouth City Council has committed £40,000 to fund studies and held talks
with "one of the country's leading specialists in cruise liner economic
assessments", as well as national tourism body Visit Britain, it has revealed.
A council spokesman said last night: "With the significant regeneration taking
place and the Mayflower 2020 celebrations just a few years away, the time has
never been better to promote Plymouth as a cruise destination.
"We have the location offer at Millbay but we also need to look at the big
questions around physical constraints as well as the economic investment
arguments.
"We hope to be in a position in the next few weeks to give more detail about
this exciting development."
The Plymouth and Devon Chamber of Commerce and the Plymouth Waterfront
Partnership also back the project.
Chamber chief executive Peter Hartland, speaking at a South East Cornwall joint
chamber of commerce meeting in Liskeard last week, said: "A demand study has
been done and it said that if you can construct a 240 metre berth, which is big
but not the biggest, then you have a business model that would make sense in
terms of demand."
But he warned: "If we can't justify it with the Mayflower 400 anniversary, then
we will never justify it."
He added that with cruise operators making bookings up to four years in advance,
there was no time to waste.
Tim Jones, chairman of Devon and Cornwall Business Council, welcomed the
chamber's push for a terminal to be built after "more than 10 years of
discussions" and said the city should look beyond just the American market.
"I think we can be more ambitious," he said. "The American market is vibrant,
but the new middle classes in China are looking for new opportunities to
experience Western culture." |
