Brexit: £22m Portsmouth Port border control site still empty

The biosecurity site cost the city council £5.4m

A border control site described as a £22m "white elephant" is still sitting empty a year after it was finished.

Portsmouth City Council said delays to opening the Border Control Post meant items like meat and forestry products were not undergoing safety checks.

The facility at Portsmouth Port was due to open in July 2022 but this was postponed until the end of this year while new Brexit rules were applied.

The government said it was committed to creating a "seamless digital border".

It has refrigerated examination rooms and bio-secure detention areas

Portsmouth City Council paid £5.4m towards building the biosecurity facility, which will be staffed with a workforce of 67 port employees.

But the government announced physical checks on animal, plant and forest imports would be delayed until a new target operating model was put in place at the end of 2023.

This led to British Ports Association chief executive Richard Ballantyne dubbing sites like the one in Portsmouth and others around the country as "costly white elephants".

Councillor Gerald Vernon-Jackson said the site lying empty was costing the authority millions of pounds

The council's cabinet member for transport, Gerald Vernon-Jackson, said the authority had now been ready for the site to open for a "long time".

"The government keep changing their mind on what they want," he said.

"The government has asked us to build something, we've built it, and now it's sitting there empty, costing millions every year."

The city council has called on the government to step in and contribute more money for the empty facility, but Mr Vernon-Jackson said the response had been "there is no more money".

A government spokesperson said it had been "engaging with the port" and would "continue to assist them as they determine the best way of using their facilities to undertake biosecurity checks".

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