'HYPOCRISY' RAP OVER CRUISE WARS; Firm received pounds 7.6m from taxpayers.

Byline: DAVID BARTLETT 

SOUTHAMPTON'S port operator which claims Liverpool's cruise liner expansion would amount to an "abuse of taxpayers' money" - has had pounds 7.6m of taxpayer handouts since 2000.

Liverpool has requested the Department for Transport relax rules to allow the city's Pier Head to become a start and finish base for cruise liners.

The DfT has to give its approval for a full "turnaround" facility because of a pounds 9m grant from the European Union that helped fund the pounds 20m terminal.

But Associated British Ports (ABP), which owns the Port of Southampton, believes it would amount to unfair help that would "distort" competition in the port sector.

Today the ECHO can reveal that ABP has had five taxpayer funded grants in the past nine years.

It comes days after the ECHO revealed the company, which also runs Garston Docks, does not pay corporation tax in this country as it is based in Jersey - where standard corporation tax is zero per cent.

Last week Doug Morrison, port director of ABP Southampton, claimed that Liverpool's plans should be rejected because "taxpayers' money distorts the marketplace".

Officials from the DfT are now set to travel to Southampton to meet with ABP to hear their concerns.

Today Liverpool Labour leader Cllr Joe Anderson said: "It's absolutely outrageous. I think the phrase 'people in glass houses should not throw stones' comes to mind.

"It's utter hypocrisy to have been critical of Liverpool when having been in receipt of taxpayers' money themselves.

"I will be writing to the DfT and ask them to take this into account during their investigation."

Today a spokesman for ABP said the firm had no argument with the people of Liverpool, but said it believed in "level playing fields."

"All of the grants listed have one thing in common, they were part of a government initiative to take cargo off roads and on to sustainable modes of transport. ABP has invested pounds 41m in improvements to its cruise industry facilities in Southampton without one single penny coming from the taxpayer.

"ABP's concerns are focused on the potential relaxation of the original conditions imposed by DfT in the relation to the grant."

ABP has its roots in the British Transport Docks Board (BTDB) that was established under the Transport Act 1962.

It was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1983.

In August 2006, ABP was acquired by a consortium of investors.

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IN PORT: The cruise liner Crown Princess docks at Pier Head in Liverpool. Cllr Joe Anderson has attacked Southampton's bid to block city expansion plans