Mersey Docks and Harbour Company

The Mersey Docks and Harbour Company (MDHC), formerly the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board (MDHB), owns and administers the dock facilities of the Port of Liverpool, on the River Mersey, England. These include the operation of the enclosed northern dock system that runs from Prince's Dock to Seaforth Dock, in the city of Liverpool and the dock facilities built around the Great Float of the Wirral Peninsula, located on the west side of the river.[1]

Peel Ports, the MDHC's parent company, owns other maritime facilities in the area, including the Cammell Laird shipyard, Tranmere Oil Terminal and the Manchester Ship Canal.[1][2]

History

Liverpool Common Council's Dock Committee was the original port authority.[4][5] In 1709, it had been authorised by the Liverpool Docks Act 1709 (8 Ann. c. 8) to construct Liverpool's first enclosed ship basin, the Old Dock, which was the world's first commercial wet dock.[6] Section 5 of the act made the Liverpool Corporation trustees of the docks.

The old Dock Committee was replaced by a separate legal body, the Liverpool Dock Trustees (formally, the Trustees of the Liverpool Docks) by the Liverpool Port and Town Improvement Act 1811 (51 Geo. 3. c. cxliii).[7] The trustees themselves continued to be a committee of the Liverpool Common Council.

In order to provide stone for the construction of the expanded dock system, from 1830 the trustees (and later the MDHB) operated large quarries at Creetown, Scotland.[8]

Management

The MDHC was accused of "macho management" by the Financial Times regarding its treatment of some of its staff in the 1990s, which resulted in the Liverpool dockers' strike.

On 22 September 2005, the MDHC was acquired by Peel Ports, part of the property and transport group Peel Group, which owns a minority stake in Liverpool John Lennon Airport.

Facilities

Cammell Laird Dock is a dock at Birkenhead, on the Wirral Peninsula. It exits directly onto the River Mersey.

The dock was built as part of an expansion of the Cammell Laird shipyard at the turn of the 20th century by enclosing what was once Tranmere Pool.[13]

Following the closure of the original Cammell Laird shipyard in 1993, the dock and the four remaining dry docks at the site are owned by the MDHC. All were subsequently leased, firstly to the A&P Group and then to Northwestern Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders, which officially renamed itself Cammell Laird Shiprepairers and Shipbuilders Ltd on 17 November 2008.[14]

See also

• Port of Liverpool
• Associated British Ports
• Peninsular and Oriental group
• PD Ports

External links

• Peel Ports: Port of Liverpool