Britain’s Road Haulage Association (RHA) has slammed the UK Department for Transport’s (DfT) decision to cancel a contract with Seaborne Freight to provide extra capacity in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

With just 45 days to go until the UK leaves the European Union (EU), minds are being concentrated as to the practical arrangements for logistics providers should the British government and Brussels not settle on a mutually acceptable withdrawal deal.

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The DfT originally contracted GBP100m of extra ferry capacity, with the bulk of the finance, GBP89m going to DFDS and Brittany Ferries to provide services across seven separate routes. Built into those agreements are options to add capacity on two other routes from those companies, should they be required.

That capacity could be needed to guarantee the smooth flow of some key goods into the UK, particularly for the National Health Service.

However, plans to provide Seaborne Freight with GBP13.8m of public money to operate services out of the Port of Ramsgate have now been abandoned, leading the RHA to pour scorn on the DfT’s contingency planning in a no-deal scenario.

“When the contract was announced we said three months to source the vessels and recruit and train staff was [a] tall order so this comes as no great surprise to us,” said RHA chief executive, Richard Burnett.

The RHA chief added the government’s no-deal contingency planning is ‘too little, too late and won’t instil much confidence in businesses trying to plan for a post-Brexit future.’

However, responding to an Urgent Question in the British House of Commons (lower Parliamentary chamber), by Labour MP, Andy McDonald, DfT Secretary of State for Transport, Chris Grayling, said: “My Department monitored closely Seaborne’s progress towards meeting its contractual commitments.

“By last week, the company had secured firm options on ships to operate on the route, had reached provisional agreement with Ostend and was close to doing so with Ramsgate. However, late last week, despite previous assurances, Arklow Shipping suddenly and unexpectedly withdrew its backing from Seaborne. In the light of this, and after very careful assessment, I took the decision to terminate this contract.”

The Secretary of State insisted “not a penny of taxpayers’ money” had gone, or will go, to Seaborne Freight.