Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History Birkenhead Docks

And that's what happens when you let idiots like John Prescott stand on the back of wagons and vowing not to let containerisation into Merseyside docks and then blindly follow him into oblivion. Mind you he's ok now.

I can't understand the council going along with infilling docks left right and centre. The surrounds of docks are classed as prime development areas and we seem to be minimising the amount of dockland???

I wonder if it's because his hometown is Hull and a dock rival?

He was a seamans union official and worked in the Liverpool offices, that's where he got his phone call and that's where he did all his gobbing off from at that time. It's Felixstowe which said they'd take on the containers and it's now thriving by the way.

Not defending John Prescott as it wasn't the right decision at the time, however, as things have worked out ... Felixstowe handles the largest number of containers in the UK, but Liverpool handles 25% more tonnage than Felixstowe these days.

My husbands job took him there in 1987 after the Merchant Fleet started to collapse. We spent 12 yrs in Felixstowe and watched the docks develop and expand.

This article from 2013 reports on 70 million container from Felixstowe docks. Amazing. To coin a phrase from one of the dockers down there "we work hard and then play hard" .... with a sense of pride , I would add.

http://worldmaritimenews.com/archives/91628/uk-port-of-felixstowe-passes-70m-teu-milestone/

Can you put your links up please DD, so we can read them ?

I used 2013 final figures as 2014 not been finalised as yet (although the 3-monthly reports are available). If you really want to dig through the zipped multiple excel spreadsheets they are HERE (the basic tonnage per port data is in port0301.xls)

Here's the order biggest to smallest (with a few rounded figures added).

Grimsby & Immingham (63mt)
London (43mt)
Milford Haven (41mt)
Tees and Hartlepool (38mt)
Southampton (36mt)
Liverpool (31mt)
Forth (26mt)
Felixstowe (26mt)
Dover (25mt)
Belfast (17mt)
Clyde (15mt)
Hull (11mt)
Bristol (11mt)
Rivers Hull and Humber (10mt)
Port Talbot (8mt)
Medway (8mt)
Tyne (8mt)
Manchester (7mt)
Sullom Voe (6mt)
Glensanda1 (6mt)
Aberdeen (4mt)
Heysham (4mt)
Harwich (4mt)
Portsmouth (4mt)
Cromarty Firth (3mt)
Holyhead (3mt)
Warrenpoint (3mt)
Newport (2mt)
Larne (2mt)
Cairnryan (2mt)

All the rest (35mt)

Liverpool has gone up one position since 2009.

Thought I would update these figures for 2014. Liverpool has retained its same ranking, same proportion (6.2%) and roughly the same tonnage as 2013.

Grimsby & Immingham (59mt)
London (44mt)
Tees and Hartlepool (40mt)
Southampton (37mt)
Milford Haven (34mt)
Liverpool (31mt)
Felixstowe (28mt)
Dover (28mt)
Forth (25mt)
Belfast (17mt)
Clyde (16mt)
Bristol (11mt)
Hull (11mt)
Rivers Hull and Humber (10mt)
Port Talbot (9mt)
Medway (8mt)
Sullom Voe (7mt)
Manchester (7mt)
Tyne (7mt)
Glensanda1 (6mt)
Heysham (4mt)
Aberdeen (4mt)
Harwich (4mt)
Portsmouth (4mt)
Holyhead (4mt)
Warrenpoint (3mt)
Newport (3mt)
Larne (2mt)
Cairnryan (2mt)
Plymouth (2mt)

Yep, a load of scrap metal doesn't half weight a lot. When's the last time you saw vessels anchored up and queuing to get into the locks and loads of dockers going to and from the dock gates to get to work? I talk as I see not as I read. Last time I was down Harwich there were loads of container vessels donking in and out of Felixstowe.