Issues surrounding silting in the harbour at Heysham appear to have been resolved.

Last week, the Minister for Infrastructure, Tim Crookall MHK , spoke with the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company regarding the problems that plagued the port over the last few weeks.

Silt build-up in the harbour affected several sailings between Christmas and New Year.

Journey departure times were moved around as the Packet made changes after reading the depth chart report at Heysham.

On Monday (December 27), the evening sailing, which was due to leave Douglas at 7.45pm, left at 9pm. The return sailing from Heysham also left an hour later than scheduled at 3.15pm.

On Tuesday (December 28), the 8.45am sailing left Douglas 30 minutes later than scheduled, and the evening sailing from Douglas left 45 minutes earlier than scheduled, at 7pm.

The situation remained the same on Wednesday (December 29), when the morning sailing also left 45 minutes earlier than scheduled at 8am, and the evening sailing departed an hour early, at 6.45pm.

Thursday (December 30) morning’s ferry, which was scheduled to leave at 2.15am, actually left Heysham at 11.45pm on Wednesday night.

Whilst no ferries were cancelled, many passengers attempting to travel over the festive season were affected, as was freight delivery.

DreDGING

Silting in the harbour makes it difficult for the Ben-my-Chree to manoeuvre in lower tides.

To tackle this and ensure that vessels can safely negotiate the harbour, the owners of Heysham port, Peel Ports are responsible for dredging the area.

It appears that whilst the issue has been resolved for now, the onus is now on the Heysham port staff to clear it up more regularly than they previously were.

However, the issue of silt and the disruption it causes is not new.

Periodically silt causes issues for the Steam Packet company, and has a tendency to affect sailings.

In April 2021, the same combination of very low tides and silt meant that a Ben-my-Chree crossing to Heysham was cancelled at short notice.

The silt issue as a whole has therefore raised further questions around the expensive Liverpool ferry terminal development.

The new terminal project is now forecast to cost over £70 million, with increased funding recently approved by Tynwald.

Despite the cost of the development, the terminal’s function will not change.

When questioned last week, a spokesperson for the Steam Packet said: ’The new Liverpool terminal will work on the same basis as [the] current [one].

’It will only handle freight if Heysham is not operational, however it is not the intention to use Liverpool for freight.’