Folkestone News

Work began on Thursday to extend a small British port that could serve as a back-up if the UK leaves the European Union with no trade deal, providing the government some respite after days of criticism.Less than three months before Britain leaves the EU on March 29, the transport minister has been forced to defend awarding a 14 million pound ($18 million) contract for shipping goods to a new ferry company that has no ships.On Thursday the company, Seaborne Freight, came in for further criticism when its business terms and conditions showed references to placing "any meal/order"…

Britain's transport minister has defended awarding a 14 million-pound ($18 million) contract for shipping goods after Brexit to a new ferry company that owns no ships.The government last week awarded three contracts to charter extra ferries to ease congestion if the United Kingdom fails to secure a trade deal before leaving the European Union in March.The smallest contract was won by Seaborne Freight, a British business that has never previously operated a ferry route, raising concern about whether the new service would be ready."I make no apologies for supporting a new British business," Transport Minister Chris Grayling told BBC radio on Wednesday. "We have looked very carefully at this business.

Striking French ferry workers blockaded the port of Calais on Tuesday morning, disrupting maritime traffic and Eurotunnel's undersea rail link with Britain in protest at restructuring at its MyFerryLink division, port officials said. Shipping halted early in the day, the Calais port authority said. Eurotunnel said the industrial action had reduced its shuttle train services which transport passengers and heavy trucks between Calais and Folkestone. "Traffic is disrupted but there are still trains running," a Eurotunnel spokesman said. About 400 workers were on strike, the Syndicat Maritime Nord union said. The union opposes plans by Eurotunnel to sell two of MyFerryLink's three passenger vessels to Denmark's DFDS  and convert the third to freight, cutting jobs.

At a hearing yesterday in Folkestone Magistrates Court, the owner of a coaster pleaded guilty to three Merchant Shipping safety offences following a collision with the East Goodwin Light Vessel on 27th February 2007. The Antigua and Barbuda registered coaster, Jerome H, was on passage from Dagenham in Essex to Belfast in Northern Ireland. In the early hours of the 27th February 2007, the vessel struck the East Goodwin Light Vessel. The collision seriously damaged the light vessel which had to be removed from station for repairs. The Jerome H continued on to Belfast. Investigations showed that the Mate was alone on the bridge. He had been doing paperwork on an aft facing desk in the moments leading up to the collision.

An Estonian passenger ferry with 49 people on board collided with a Dutch tug off the southern coast of England on Monday, injuring one member of the tug's five-man crew, British coastguards said. No one was hurt on board the RoRo ferry, Neptunia, which was on its way from Folkestone, southern England to Boulogne in northern France. Coastguards said both vessels had been damaged in the collision and had taken on some water. One crew member on the tug suffered a head injury but coastguards said it was not severe enough to require immediate hospital treatment. The boats collided just before 6.00 a.m., six miles (10 km) southeast of the English port of Dover. "The damage caused a small hole in the port quarter of the ferry," the maritime and coastguard agency said in a statement.

Sea Containers Ltd., marine container lessor, passenger and freight transport operator and leisure industry investor, today announced that it had sold its subsidiary Folkestone Properties Ltd, owners of Folkestone Harbour on the south east coast of the United Kingdom. Contracts were signed for the port sale on July 2, 2004 and the purchase, by businessman Mr Roger De Haan who is well known as chairman of the Folkestone-based Saga Group, was completed on August 24, 2004. The sale price was $20 million (GBP11 million). President of Sea Containers Ltd., Mr James B. Sherwood, said the gain will be recorded in the company's third quarter results.

Sea Containers has sold the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company to Montagu Private Equity Limited for $233 million, with effect on June 30, 2003. The profit on this transaction will be $100 million, however, the company has decided to establish provisions for the restructuring of its fast ferry business and to reduce the carrying value of certain assets to current market value. Total provisions will be approx. $40 million. The company also advised that its exchange offer of 13% senior notes due 2006 for July 1, 2003 matured 9.5% and 10.5% senior notes had been subscribed in the amount of $22.5 million. The balance of these senior notes ($136.6 million) has been repaid.