Anyone with half a brain could have told him that the Cunard Building would not work as a Cruise Terminal. It is easy to work out how can you have a terminal half a mile away from the landing stage. How will you get the clients on board.........by magic carpet.
Today Marc Waddington, and a huge part of this problem, Echo shipping correspondent Peter Elson write about the collapse of the idea.
This idea should never have got going.
Only Joe Anderson sycophant,Peter Elson kept pushing, at one time, during an interview about the Cunard takeover, on Radio Merseyside he called Anderson Liverpools Prince Charming, (sic)
Anderson went with it, hook line and stinker, sensing great PR headlines.
Wayne gave Elson the idea to run a Daily Post campaign to start cruises at the new cruise terminal after it was doomed to be a turnaround facility. And even put a plan forward to develop the site of the current cruise customs tent.
We now have to accuse the press for its lack of educated and joined up thinking in this whole sorry saga that is The Cunard cock Up..
It is even more ironic that the very press who have forgotten about Liverpool being on the World Heritage In Danger list now print reasons for the Cunard Cock Up as harming the World Heritage Site.
Liverpool Confidential writes;
LIVERPOOL Mayor Joe Anderson last night confirmed his dreams of creating a stunning cruise terminal departure lounge in the riverfront Cunard Building have been torpedoed by strict security controls.
But the mayor defended his £10m purchase of the one time headquarters of the world’s best known shipping line.
Instead the one-time sailor and his team will have to go back to the drawing board to find a replacement for the temporary, marquee-like check-in area close to the cruise terminal.
It seems the logistics of moving passengers from A to Sea would not only have cost millions of pounds, it would also compromise what is the epicentre of Liverpool’s World Heritage Site.
Monorail
Things have changed since the days when first class passengers arrived at what was Cunard’s first class passenger lounge before strolling over to the Princes Landing Stage to board their ocean-going liners. These days you have to go through a massive security check before they’ll even let you set foot in the cruise terminal.
Border controls, now stricter than ever, pose a problem for a check-in facility without a secure link to the gangway of departing liners.
Various suggestions – even a monorail – have been put forward as a way of meeting new maritime security regulations. It is a wonder they didn’t even throw in the popular Church Street sky-ride as a potential carrier of cruise line travellers.
Maritime consultants Royal Haskoning were commissioned by the city council to carry out a feasibility study to explore the potential of using the ground floor of the Cunard Building as a cruise liner terminal facility.
Their report, due to be released at the end of this month, will reveal a range of options could cost anything between £5m and £60m.Mayor Anderson said all of the options put forward were based on the requirements of TRANSEC and Border Control and include everything from basic covered walkways to a monorail for transporting passengers.
The Mayor commented: “We have, in addition to cost, to be mindful of the fact that we do not want to do anything that impacts on the World Heritage site the building is on. In light of these findings it is clear we will not be able to progress with this plan.
What a Cock Up. Joe Anderson says they are going to bring hosts of tenants to the Cunard Buildings, when half of Liverpool's historic buildings in the locality are half empty and the reason the Pension fund sold it in the first place is that it was proving a dead duck to them.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment