A new state-of-the-art Brexit border control in Portsmouth could have to be demolished before it is opened because further changes to border protocols have rendered it useless.
The £24 million post was due to begin physical checks on food and plant imports from the EU at the end of next month It is designed to carry out checks on up to 80 truckloads of produce a day, but the port now expects to process only four or five daily.
It means half of the 14 loading bays will never be used, and the annual running costs of £800,000 a year will no longer be covered by the fees charged to importers for carrying out checks.
According to Sky News, Portsmouth is not alone, with ports across the country puzzling over how to make the over-sized, over-specified buildings commissioned by the government pay for themselves with far less traffic.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs says it spent £200m part-funding new facilities to cope with post-Brexit border controls at 41 ports. It acknowledges that fewer checks will now be required and says ports are free to use spare capacity as they wish.
Mike Sellers, director of Portsmouth International Port and chairman of the British Ports Association, told Sky: “This was built to a Defra [Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs] specification when the border operating model was announced and it’s been mothballed for two years while the checks were delayed.
“Now the border will be operating with far fewer checks, we are going to struggle to cover the running costs of around £800,000 a year.
“So we have to look to the future and work out what strategically is the best way to minimise the impact to the port and to the council.
“I know it sounds ironic, but that could be building another border control post much smaller than this facility, and looking to find commercial ways to get income either through this facility or to demolish it and use the operational land for something else.”
Related: Fictional Labour frontbencher better known than real ones, survey finds