Port space now spare

Press, 12 September 1987, Page 7

Port space now spare

The Lyttelton Harbour Board will gain access to an extra I.Bha of land as a result of the withdrawal of the Union Rotorua service later this month. The land is under lease to the Union Shipping Group but the withdrawal of the company’s last regular roll-on vessel means the land is no longer needed.

The Union Rotorua has been calling at Lyttelton every three weeks on her Tasman service, but the next call, on September 19, will be the last.

The company will continue to move cargo through the port but its ships will sail out of North Island ports only. The Lyttelton Harbour Board and the Union Shipping Group would renegotiate the terms of the contract, which still had four years to run, said the general manager of the board, Mr lan Brokenshire.

"There is a clause in respect of early termination,” he said. The board had done a lot of redevelopment at the company’s request.

There had been a reclamation and sheds and other facilities had been built before the company took over the present licence (to occupy) in 1977. The I.Bha of land is next to the container terminal which has had problems with lack of space for storage of containers for some time. However, there would be problems if the land was used as part of the container terminal, said Mr Brokenshire. “That would leave no operational land in con-

junction with Gladstone Pier and Z berth,” he said. The land might be better used for working other roll-on vessels or ships with their own cranes, he said. The availability of the extra land would have no effect on the board’s eclamation plans, said Mr Brokenshire. “We had been anticipating that the land would become available by the time the reclamation was completed anyway,” he said. “It has just come four years early.” .