'Costa Metallica' costs Liverpool £4.5m as cruise liner quits port to avoid gigantic scrapheap

The magic of Bootle and one of Europe's largest scrapheaps have lost Liverpool a lucrative contract with cruise ships bound for the Amazon and other exotic destinations. Tour operator TUI Travel is withdrawing its liner Thomson Celebration from a berth nicknamed the Costa Metallica by holiday reps frustrated with the pace of progress in cleaning up the industrial shoreline of the Mersey.

The move, at a time when recession is threatening the holiday business and cruises in particular, means an estimated £4.5m loss in port fees for the once-bustling river. It follows a couple of trial cruises based at Bootle's Langton Dock earlier this year, one of which spent three days moored by the scrapyard because of heavy seas and bad weather.

TUI's planned programme of 30 cruises from Liverpool, which would have taken in Greenland and continental European ports, was the city's biggest passenger shipping operation since the heyday of transatlantic liners ended in the mid-1960s. Its withdrawal, to a new base likely to be either on the Tyne or at Southampton, follows prolonged negotiations with the city and Peel Holdings, which runs the Port of Liverpool. Although The Thomson Celebration's 1,300 passengers could enjoy the attractions of this year's European capital of culture, the cruises had to start from the modest Bootle docks rather than the famous Pierhead. The new £17m Pierhead terminal is designed to take only "port of call" cruises rather than ships needing a permanent base.

David Selby, director of cruising for TUI, blamed a collapse in hopes of using the new terminal while regeneration of the lower Mersey continues on both banks. He said: "Naturally, we were disappointed that so many local people have not had the opportunity to use such a great facility.

"Customer satisfaction is of paramount importance to us. Therefore, Thomson Cruises felt that it would not be able to offer the quality of service its customers have come to expect if obliged to sail out of Langton Dock. This being the case, it was decided not to continue with this itinerary."

A spokesman for Liverpool city council said that the Pierhead terminal was bound by European competition laws because public money had been used to build it. He added: "It is also limited to 'port-of-call' ships because it does not have customs or immigration facilities. These are provided by Peel Ports at Langton Dock."

Liverpool's year in the cultural limelight has been given extra glitz by cruise visits, including one from the QE2 on its farewell tour. Recent renovation has restored much of the infrastructure which the city installed in the Cunard era, when ships such as the Mauretania and Lusitania sailed from the Mersey.