Government plans to redevelop Douglas harbour are like ’putting new wine in old bottles’.

That’s the view of the man behind ambitious £100m proposals for a 400-berth marine in Ramsey - who is also advocating the construction of a £90m new commercial port for Douglas.

St Jude’s resident Robin Bromley-Martin, who has a background in developing container ports in West Africa, was giving evidence to a Tynwald scrutiny committee that is investigating the government’s harbour strategy.

Tynwald last year approved in principle an £11m plan to create a deep water cruise berth on the outer side of the Victoria Pier.

Other parts of the £80m, three-year strategy would see a new pleasure craft slip and holding area, windfarm support vessel pontoons, a new breakwater and revetment and upgrades to the King Edward VIII Pier, tanker berth and Victoria Pier ro-ro berth.

But Mr Bromley-Martin said that plan was flawed.

He told the committee: ’Having looked at the Douglas harbour proposals in more detail, it is putting new wine into old bottles, in my view.’

The smallest ferry available to hire should there be a problem with the Ben-my-Chree is 145m but the maximum Douglas harbour can take is 135m.

He said there is a lot of silt coming down the river and he said putting a new pier out towards Conister Rock would mean this material would be trapped rather than being washed out by the tide.

’That would be my gut reaction, I would vote against the pier coming out to Conister Rock for that reason. The cost of deepening a pier satisfactorily if you are going to dredge down two or three metres is horrendously, disproportionately expensive - and you don’t know what’s underneath there structurally, anyway.

’In summary, I think these two options for Victoria Pier are fraught with difficulty, based on my experience in West Africa.’

He added: ’I don’t think the harbour strategy, as it stands today, is fit for purpose.’

His idea, he explained, was to build a completely new commercial pier outside Princess Alexandra Pier.

During last year’s Tynwald debate, Infrastructure Minister Ray Harmer did not rule out such a plan at a later stage if cruise passenger numbers grew sufficiently.

Mr Bromley-Martin said the facility would be multi-purpose and could include two ro-ro ferry linkspans, a tanker berth, a small container terminal and space for gas support vessels.

He said the ballpark cost of building a new port, coupled with the conversion of the inner harbour into a 25-berth marina, would be £90m.