Displaying items by tag: UK Gov'Slow'

30th April 2020

Ferry Owner of P&O from Dubai Say UK Government 'Slow' over Threat to Supply Routes

P&O Ferries have furloughed staff due to Covid-19. They operate on the Irish Sea, the North Channel, Dover-Calais and North Sea services of Hull-Zeebrugge/ Rotterdam. Above AFLOAT's file photo of the Belgium routes Pride of York which is currently laid-up docked in Hull at the port's King George V Dock (as above) while sister Pride of Bruges is reported to lay up soon. (AFLOAT update: ferry now laid-up in Rotterdam). Both ferries previously operated for North Sea Ferries (NSF) along with current Dublin-Liverpool pair Norbank and Norbay (see recent 'Ferry News') still retain their NSF ship name prefix of 'Nor' despite in 1996 when P&O (which already had a stake in NSF) rebranded as P&O North Sea Ferries and is now simply P&O Ferries. NSF's Norsea was renamed Pride of York and sister Norsun became Pride of Bruges.

Dubai based owner of P&O Ferries, reports BBC News, has said the UK government has been "slow" to react to the crisis facing vital supply routes.

The ferry company, which transports 15% of all goods in and out of the UK (incl Ireland), has applied for financial support to see it through the coronavirus lockdown.

The head of Dubai-based DP World told the BBC that P&O needs £257m in aid to avoid collapse and has applied to the UK government for £150m of that.

But Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem said he has yet to get a response from the UK.

The DP World chairman and chief executive said: "P&O plays a vital role in the UK and thousands of jobs depend on this company. We have to be sure that when this is over we can bounce back and save these jobs.

"We have applied to the UK government to support the company to save the jobs of these people. The government has been slow. We need to safeguard these jobs - a lot of people's lives depends on this company."

As leisure passenger numbers have collapsed, moving freight only between the EU and the UK has become economically unviable. P&O has taken seven ships out of service (among them Pride of York according to the YorkshirePost).

As Afloat has previously reported P&O has also furloughed 1,400 workers, which will see the UK government paying 80% of their wages.

For further reading on the story click here.

In addition Afloat reported on the operator's Dublin-Liverpool ropax freight ferry Norbay which was detained in the UK port over port fees which was resolved recently.

The Norbank along with sister Norbay still retain their 'Nor' prefix named as a legacy of North Sea Ferries which as alluded in the photo caption above became part of the present P&O Ferries connecting the UK with Ireland and continental Europe.

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Competitions

The most significant events for the Half Ton Class has been the annual Half Ton Cup which was sailed under the IOR rules until 1993. More recently this has been replaced with the Half Ton Classics Cup. The venue of the event moved from continent to continent with over-representation on French or British ports. In later years the event is held biennially. Initially, it was proposed to hold events in Ireland, Britain and France by rotation. However, it was the Belgians who took the ball and ran with it. The Class is now managed from Belgium.