Public subsidy generates animosity in Liverpool

There seems to be an air of animosity surrounding development work at the UK port city of Liverpool due to contested public funding, but confusion has meant Peel’s projects have been tarred - although privately funded.
There’s certainly lots going on at the Port of Liverpool including the procurement for the new Liverpool 2 container terminal and a proposed redevelopment of waterfront called ‘Liverpool Waters’, which includes a second cruise terminal. These are owned by Peel Ports and Peel Holdings Group – and are all privately funded, the group has told Port Strategy.
However, the issues actually centre on the existing Pier Head cruise terminal owned by Liverpool Council. The council is reported as continuing to revamp the terminal for lucrative turnaround cruises – which could operate from May.
The problem is the council has received a large amount of public funding for the revamp which other port cities, like Southampton, are not happy about.
Recently, it was decided that a GB£9m governmental grant given for the development should be paid back by the council – the original conditions of the grant banned turnaround cruises.
Liverpool Council also received an additional GB£8.6m grant from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) to help build the GB£21m City of Liverpool Terminal – and there are calls to pay this back too.
An appeal has been filed by a group of MEPs asking that the EU recover the cost of the grant and safeguard fair competition across the cruise industry.

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