Southampton is very lucky to have the second biggest container port in the country and also be the largest cruise ship departure port, in Europe.

Both of these industries bring huge benefits to the city.

They provide hundreds of full and part-time jobs both in the docks and in the wider community and supply chain, contributing huge amounts of much needed revenue to the city economy.

But there is a down side.

This city has a very poor record on achieving cleaner air, so you would think that the city council would try to pull out all the stops to alleviate pollution wherever possible.

A good start to drastically cutting carbon emissions would be to reduce the amount of unnecessary car journeys between the Eastern and Western Docks.

Hundreds and often thousands of cars belonging to cruise passengers are driven every month from Ocean Terminal – berth 46, to Mayflower Terminal - berth 106, along Platform Road and Town Quay into Dock Gate Eight and vice versa in the other direction.

However that gate is often closed, necessitating the cars to also drive the length of West Quay Road past a sign calling for reduced carbon emissions and cleaner air. Crazy!

The council needs to ask ABP why they are consistently changing berths for the cruise ships, meaning that they return to a different berth than the one they departed from.

Thus passengers cars need to be moved to new arrival berth!

This is happening consistently every month, often weekly.

There are occasionally genuine reasons why a ship would return to a different berth. The captain may decide to change berths due to weather, high winds, operational, etc.

Clearly this is not the reason in most of these cases.

Why often drive 600 cars in one direction and at the same time 600 plus in the other direction just to swap over berths.

It is utter madness and makes a mockery of ABP’s claim to reduce their carbon footprint around the Docks Estate and waterfront area.

We very much need the cruise passengers in the city.

However we need to mitigate the carbon emissions that they cause, as much as possible. Damage limitation is essential.

ABP could also begin to provide power supplies to the cruise ships, thus preventing the need to keep their engines running whilst in port.

Come on council, take up this case, question ABP and publish your findings.

If you really are genuine about cutting emissions let's hear your answers and solutions!

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