ABP Southampton has won an environmental award for its contribution to improving air quality in the city.

A new system enables cruise ships moored alongside the Horizon and Mayflower terminals to switch off their auxiliary engines and plug into a dockside power supply.

Now ABP has been awarded the "Clean Maritime Innovator" title at this year's Maritime UK Solent Awards at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

Accepting nominations from small, medium, and large organisations across 13 categories, the accolades salute maritime innovation and excellence across the Solent area.

Alastair Welch, ABP's regional director, said: "We are incredibly proud to win this award.

"Implementing shore power is a collaborative approach working with several organisations to ensure the technology is installed and funded in a way that supports a sustainable and environmentally focused sector and port.”

Earlier this year, ABP launched its "Ready for Tomorrow" strategy, which outlines its commitment to achieving net zero by 2040.

A company spokesman said: "Part of the strategy is to support our customers’ operations with their sustainability goals. Shore power is a leap forward in this area through supporting our customers in reducing their emissions whilst in the port.

"ABP is anticipating future shore power implementations for other cruise and container terminals."

The use of shore power follows years of controversy about cruise ships and their impact on the environment, including air quality.

In 2021 a new report claimed that cruise ships were a likely source of risk to passengers, staff and people who lived near ports or worked in shipyards.

The report was based on international research led by the University of Exeter.

Professor Lora Fleming said: "Cruise tourism was rapidly expanding pre-Covid-19 and our research shows it causes major impacts on the environment and on human health and wellbeing.

“We need much better monitoring to generate more robust data for the true picture of these impacts.

“Without new and strictly enforced national and international standardised rules, the cruise industry is likely to continue causing serious health and environmental hazards.”

Shore power was supported by a grant from the Solent Local Growth Deal, arranged through the Solent Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).

ABP implemented the scheme with the aid of Powercon.

The arrival of each cruise ship pumps an estimated £2.7m into the local economy, helping the industry support 14,000 jobs in the Solent area.