THE port that would supposedly be used by a ferry firm with no ships in the event of a no-deal Brexit will not in itself be ready for the role, it has been claimed.
It emerged last weekend that Seaborne Freight was awarded a £13.8 million UK Government contract to operate a service between Ramsgate in Kent and Ostend in Belgium – despite not having any boats, and appearing to have copied its online terms and conditions from a takeaway website.
Now a local Tory councillor has said the town’s harbour “cannot be ready” in time if the UK to leave the EU on March 29.
Martin warned: “There isn’t the width or the breadth of the berths that is needed to carry large ships.
“I don’t see how, with the state of the harbour and the port and the number of repairs that are needed that it could be ready.”
She claimed that the district council, which owns the port, had not been contacted about opening the harbour up to larger freight ships in the wake of the decision.
The Department for Transport said it had been in discussions with the council for a couple of years, facilities would be open “as soon as practicable” and “works are under way”, according to the report.
Claims that residents had not been consulted were dismissed as “complete nonsense”.
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