Liverpool's still moaning......

First off, Liverpool is a great city with a lot to recommend it , (apart from it's football, but hey, who's perfect?). My brother lives in Liverpool and I've spent many enjoyable weekends there. However I'm getting a little bored about listening to Liverpool City Council moan about cruising.


I actually wrote a post about this last year, (if you want, you can read it by clicking here), stating that unless you lived in the immediate area, no one, including the cruise lines, would want to cruise from Liverpool because it would add an extra day to the cruise, (to get to and from Liverpool to your cruise destinations). Again you can read more about it on the previous post.

Speaking in an interview with the BBC the other day, Liverpool City Council leader Joe Anderson admitted he was angry that the decision was taking so long.
At present, Liverpool can only currently accept cruise stop-offs at the city's port, meaning the area misses out on a substantial amount of tourism trade.
The City Council applied for permission to allow cruises to start or end in the city last year and were originally assured that a decision would be made by the end of 2011.
However, opposition from Southampton, which currently hosts much of the cruise ship trade in the UK, saw the decision delayed, leading to Mr Anderson's angered response.
"This is now a restraint of trade issue - I believe, quite fairly and quite strongly, the government are restraining Liverpool from operating a facility that brings in jobs and money to the local economy," he said.
Southampton's main criticism focuses on the fact that public funding was given to the port back in 2007, under the agreement that it would not host cruise holidays.
Royal Caribbean Cruises has already moved to state it has no interest in using the Liverpool port, and will continue to base its cruise ships in Southampton.

 - Quoted from our cruise forum website www.cruises.co.uk

So I'm sorry Liverpool, (and anyone living in the Liverpool area), but we don't want to cruise from Liverpool anymore.
Southampton is a lot more convenient, (and quicker), for getting to so many other ports of calls that any Northern port will never be able to offer serious competition, there's a reason Southampton has become so prominent in the modern cruising era.
So c'mon Liverpool council, stop moaning and just accept it, Liverpool is fine as a stop off port for around the UK cruises, but in the long run no one will want to start or finish any cruises there.

Long may Southampton reign!