Portsmouth Brexit border post under threat

The post was designed to carry out checks on up to 80 truckloads of produce a day, but the port now expects to process only four or five daily.

The facility at Portsmouth International Port is due to begin physical checks on food and plant imports from the EU at the end of April, but changes to border protocols since it was built mean half of the building will never be used.

Nichola Mallon, Head of Trade at Logistics UK said: “Huge sums of money were spent building border control posts only for them now to lie empty. This is, frustratingly, a consequence of the government’s rush, change and then delay approach to UK EU trading processes post EU exit – a consequence which Logistics UK foresaw and warned about.”

Portsmouth is not alone, with ports across the country puzzling over how to make the oversized, over-specified buildings commissioned by the government in the wake of the Brexit vote pay for themselves with far less traffic.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs says it spent £200m part-funding new facilities to cope with post-Brexit border controls at 41 ports. It acknowledges that fewer checks will now be required and says ports are free to use spare capacity as they wish.

Because the border post in Portsmouth was built for a very specific purpose inside a secure area, it has no obvious alternative commercial use, so the port is considering building a new, smaller facility, and decommissioning or even demolishing the existing building to make space for a commercially viable project.

Published On: 04/04/2024 15:20:00

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