Comments on: Harbour liner berth cost rises by £100m. in a year

By: Island Wide Voting

Island Wide Voting — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 14:25:44 +0000

Yvonne

Was the previous C & E report put together by imported consultants? .. in which case it appears to be in part at least the usual waste of money

Or,possibly worse,was it put together by C & E’s own in house staff? Staff who are no doubt still in situ ( or promoted to another department)and therefore in a position to wreak further havoc due to there apparant lack of basic maths

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By: ANDREW

ANDREW — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 12:49:20 +0000

One point to bear in mind is that in the last few years a high percentage of the ships called in on a Sunday.
You only have to read the comment from Carnival UK to see this is a pie in the sky idea.

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By: islander

islander — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 09:25:02 +0000

Many ports around the world are in the situation like us whereby liners cannot berth alongside the quay.

With the amount of liners visiting Guernsey would it not be wise for the States of Guernsey Harbour Authority to purchase a purpose built small passenger ferry for ferrying passengers from ship to shore?

With a purpose built rig outside St Sampsons Harbour for pumping fuel ashore being the option for health and safety of the northern end of the island.

Building a deep water berth will only hinder the beautiful views of our surrounding smaller islands.

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By: Yvonne Burford

Yvonne Burford — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 22:49:23 +0000

The previous Commerce and Employment did a report in which they attempted to assess the value of a cruise liner berth. If you read the report, you will see that most of it focused on calculations of what economic value (not the same as spend) cruise ship passengers could bring to Guernsey.

In my view it was a hugely over optimistic report, taking at most stages the upper estimate of possible increases in number of visits, passengers, spend, etc, to arrive at an economic value figure. It then looked at three scenarios of estimated capital cost of £25m, £40m and £80m. A bit of basic maths (not included in the report) showed that only the £25m figure was anywhere near viable. Even accepting their optimistic income figures, it would have taken over 60 years to pay back £40m and the £80m option would never have been paid back The report also failed to factor in any maintenance or allow for the fact that some ships might still choose to anchor rather than pay the £20k alongside fee.

The previous PSD had started the Ports Master Plan process and a majority of the current Board were happy for the consultants to consider the berth in its final presentation as it involved little extra work and as it had figured quite highly in the public consultations and as at that point the likely cost was still unknown.

Personally I think the whole idea was completely barking from the outset and I am surprised the original C&E report did not come in for a more serious critique at the time. One excuse offered in that ireport was that if it was unaffordable to the States then the private sector might join in. As if that somehow suddenly makes it financially viable. Madness.

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By: pb falla

pb falla — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 12:45:33 +0000

IWV

If you are going to use my material plese get it right

“Bring Back The Good Old Days”

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By: charlie G

charlie G — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 11:42:02 +0000

mrspinthepantry…i am flattered,but not sure if “darling” should contain an “h”.
I totaly agree with your point,of lack of money,but, had successive states governing bodies looked a little harder, into their “crystal balls”,and stopped burying their heads in the sand… they would of seen the obvious,and planned ahead for our Islands future requirements.The total lack of positive professional leadership, by the these successive States bodies:is precisely why our Island is in the mess it’s in now.The St Peter Port harbour extension, WILL be needed; sooner or later,not just for cruise liners,but very importantly, for the ever growing freight imports…and the safety of all that use the harbour.The Cruise industry, does not bring a mass fortune to our Island,but we still need to give a good “first impression counts”attitude,to everyone who visits our shores,whether it be by boat or plane.Some of my freight driving is also done in Europe,going as far south as Gibraltar,and for a tiny “British” rock,they certainly pull out all the stops,(no head in the sand attitude there), to encourage all the tourism possible,and that includes much needed harbour extensions,for freight and Cruise liners.Like i said in my previous letter,we better start saving now !

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By: forest

forest — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 22:10:12 +0000

I prefer to see it as a job creation scheme for redundant finance workers Ray, besides I think they are well qualified ;)

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By: rosie

rosie — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 20:37:43 +0000

Dave, Can you tell us what this degree subject was?

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By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 18:06:44 +0000

Davey West

Obviously you don’t go to Jersey very often. I have studied this at degree level you don’t know what you are talking about. Jersey has two boats a day from France you see school parties of 40 plus children disembarking from the boat, it is full twice a day in the summer. Why would Condor do two boats a day to France from Jersey obviously because more people use it. If you go to the Market you hear French being spoken quite often. The finance industry is different to the tourist industry. Why would Jersey spending a few million on adverts on tv for tourism? Guernsey doesn’t do it because of the return.

In total 1.1m passengers arrived in Jersey by sea and air in 2011.

People arriving by sea were the majority with ferry travel up 4% while the number of people flying rose by just over 2%.

People flying from Liverpool to Jersey rose by 27% to 36,000 passengers in 2011.

Routes between Jersey and London remain the most popular with nearly 300,000 passengers flying from Gatwick.

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By: davey West

davey West — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 17:22:56 +0000

Jersey has a tourist industry ? where on earth did you get that idea ? With the relentless conversion into flats and houses of hotels and guesthouses plus the closing of the Jersey authorities care little for this industry, the first love is finance. Furthermore they have just allocated another £4 million to promote the banks who are sitting on their own billions.

Judging by the number of tourists disembarking the Condor ferries into Guernsey ( no GST ) before going on to Jersey mostly empty, I suggest you retract that statement as plain wrong

Davey.

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By: Island Wide Voting

Island Wide Voting — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 11:14:06 +0000

Forest

That’s just another way of repeating pb’s mantra of ‘bring back the old days’ :)

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By: Forest

Forest — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 23:39:33 +0000

The only way we’ll ever make any money out of passing ships is to do it old school and rob them like we used to.

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By: Matt

Matt — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 21:42:25 +0000

Well Robert, clearly you know me very well. Being able to judge a person’s character by a couple of posts on a forum is certainly a special skill.

Maybe you should try coming up with a valid reply to my post instead of judgment on my personality.

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By: Taz

Taz — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 16:53:01 +0000

It seems one of those ideas to hide another, perhaps the real plan is to develop Havelet!
theres no worry that they will go to Jersey, they cant get Condor in unless the tide is right!

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By: rosie

rosie — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 12:46:32 +0000

IWV & mrsp. Exactly. It is not a trade that we can bank on continuing for long enough to pay back any major investment particularly when you consider that the added value would only be the difference between what we already make from the cruise liners, and the increase in spend from being able to come along side, which would be minuscule.

I would not be against a modest spend on up-grading the harbour facilities so that the visitors had somewhere to arrive and wait reboarding.

This is not a story worth worrying about because it ain’t going to happen.

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