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Yarmouth harbour begins to take shape
As the first rocks arrived in Yarmouth for work to begin on the port's £80m outer harbour, an operator at a rival East Anglian port yesterday wasted no time in striking the first blow in the coming ferry wars.
Officially welcoming back two refurbished super-ferries on its service from Harwich, in Essex, to the Hook of Holland, Stena Line's North Sea area director Pim de Lange dismissed the Yarmouth venture as a "dead duck".
He said: "I don't see it being a success. It is in the wrong area and the road connections are poor. You simply don't need an extra harbour."
As the Stena Hollandica and Stena Britannica were unveiled after a £70m rebuilding project - the largest in the company's history - Mr de Lange launched a scathing attack on the use of £18m of public money in the Yarmouth scheme.
He said: "You should have a level playing field. It is not right to have a subsidised harbour in competition with a commercial port."
And he added that if the outer harbour did bring jobs to the deprived Norfolk town - the aim of the subsidies - it would only be at the expense of jobs elsewhere.
Yarmouth's outer harbour is not scheduled to start operating until the end of next year and a question mark still hangs over if and when agreement can be reached with a ferry operator to launch what would become the fastest North Sea crossing to Ijmuiden in Holland.
However, Mr de Lange said the massive investment in the two ferries confirmed Stena's confidence in its North Sea routes in the face of any new competition.
As well as revamping on-board restaurants, bars, shops and lounges, the work has involved lengthening the ships to double the number of cabins and increase passenger and freight capacity.
No one from Yarmouth Port Company or its parent firm, International Port Holdings (IPH), was available yesterday to comment on the attack by Mr de Lange.
However, John Simmons, the port company's assistant harbour manager, confirmed the arrival of the barge The Armour Rock ahead of schedule.
He said the vessel, anchored near the mouth of the River Yare, was awaiting the arrival of a smaller barge to transfer its 18,000 tonne cargo to the shore.
The Armour Rock is the first of dozens of barges that will be bringing granite rocks from Sweden that will be deposited on the seabed to create two 1,400m breakwaters. Work will initially start on the northern one near the former Omni-Pac site on South Denes.
Mr Simmons said work had not been due to start until the end of the month, so the boat's early arrival was a welcome surprise.
As reported in the EDP, the landmark agreement to build the harbour was reached by IPH and Yarmouth Port Authority in May.
It has been projected that the project could eventually create 1,000 jobs, as well as boosting tourism and regenerating the rundown area around South Denes.
Officially welcoming back two refurbished super-ferries on its service from Harwich, in Essex, to the Hook of Holland, Stena Line's North Sea area director Pim de Lange dismissed the Yarmouth venture as a "dead duck".
He said: "I don't see it being a success. It is in the wrong area and the road connections are poor. You simply don't need an extra harbour."
As the Stena Hollandica and Stena Britannica were unveiled after a £70m rebuilding project - the largest in the company's history - Mr de Lange launched a scathing attack on the use of £18m of public money in the Yarmouth scheme.
He said: "You should have a level playing field. It is not right to have a subsidised harbour in competition with a commercial port."
And he added that if the outer harbour did bring jobs to the deprived Norfolk town - the aim of the subsidies - it would only be at the expense of jobs elsewhere.
Yarmouth's outer harbour is not scheduled to start operating until the end of next year and a question mark still hangs over if and when agreement can be reached with a ferry operator to launch what would become the fastest North Sea crossing to Ijmuiden in Holland.
However, Mr de Lange said the massive investment in the two ferries confirmed Stena's confidence in its North Sea routes in the face of any new competition.
As well as revamping on-board restaurants, bars, shops and lounges, the work has involved lengthening the ships to double the number of cabins and increase passenger and freight capacity.
No one from Yarmouth Port Company or its parent firm, International Port Holdings (IPH), was available yesterday to comment on the attack by Mr de Lange.
However, John Simmons, the port company's assistant harbour manager, confirmed the arrival of the barge The Armour Rock ahead of schedule.
He said the vessel, anchored near the mouth of the River Yare, was awaiting the arrival of a smaller barge to transfer its 18,000 tonne cargo to the shore.
The Armour Rock is the first of dozens of barges that will be bringing granite rocks from Sweden that will be deposited on the seabed to create two 1,400m breakwaters. Work will initially start on the northern one near the former Omni-Pac site on South Denes.
Mr Simmons said work had not been due to start until the end of the month, so the boat's early arrival was a welcome surprise.
As reported in the EDP, the landmark agreement to build the harbour was reached by IPH and Yarmouth Port Authority in May.
It has been projected that the project could eventually create 1,000 jobs, as well as boosting tourism and regenerating the rundown area around South Denes.
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