Wellwishers see off Pride of York as she sails from Hull 'for the last time'

Wellwishers, including Hull East MP Karl Turner, saw the Bahamas-registered Pride of York set sail from Hull Docks at 1pm for Rotterdam.

She served Hull on the Rotterdam route as the Norsea from 1987 before transferring to the Zeebrugge route after her renaming in 2003.

A consultation started two months ago over 81 redundancies, including 16 ratings on the Pride of York and 37 in Dover.

P&O Ferries has so far refused to confirm whether the route will go.

However the MP said: "I have no doubts that the Pride of York will not see Hull again and strongly suspect that P&O Ferries have already sold the vessel.

"As I understand it P&O Ferries claim that the berthing fees from ABP in Hull are too expensive to maintain whilst the vessel is laid up.

"The business is still in consultation as to whether the Hull to Zeebrugge route will be maintained. They need to think on."

Mr Turner said the Government needed to "put their foot down" with the Dubai state-owned company, which had received £1.2m from Government for freight contracts on the Hull-Zeebrugge route during lockdown.

He said: "We must protect British maritime jobs and the Government seems content to just sit by and allow them to claim that it isn't commercially viable any more."

RMT General Secretary Mick Cash said it was "a measure of how P&O's owners and other shipping companies had got us all over a barrel".

Mr Cash said: "P&O could deploy the Pride of York from Rotterdam as part of the Freight Capacity Framework Agreement to 2024, but the Government has not placed any requirements for UK crew to deliver those taxpayer funded services.

"This is a sad day for UK seafarers and a measure of how P&O’s owners and other shipping companies have got us all over a barrel. The Government needs to wake up to this fact, and fast.”

Former Yorkshire Post reporter and ex Hull and Humber Chamber of Commerce president Phil Ascough, who covered the arrival of Norsea in 1987, said: "This has come a little out of the blue. There did seem some momentum gaining with the campaign to keep the service running.

"It's a huge loss at a time when the country is supposedly confident about a bright international future and here it is cutting off a highly valued link between York and the Continent.

"It is weakening Yorkshire and the UK."

It is understood that the Hull to Zeebrugge route has been loss-making in the past three years and faces a further loss of £20m this year due to a collapse in passenger numbers due to the pandemic.

P&O Ferries has been approached for a comment.