A P&O ferry that was held for reinspection has been cleared to sail, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) has said. Another ferry has been found to have a “small number of deficiencies” that need to be addressed before it can resume service, it said.
“There are no further inspections of P&O Ferries at the moment,” it said. Safety fears were raised after P&O replaced nearly 800 seafarers with cheaper agency staff on 17 March. The firm suspended most of its sailings but reportedly only expected the disruption to last up to 10 days.
However, inspections prevented a number of ferries from operating, which contributed to major travel disruption near Dover in the run-up to the Easter holidays. The MCA said the Spirit of Britain “has been released from detention and can commence operations when P&O Ferries are ready”. It also said the inspection of a vessel called the European Highlander had been completed.
“There are a small number of deficiencies and the MCA requires confirmation that these have been rectified before the vessel is free to resume service,” an MCA spokesperson said. The Spirit of Britain was detained earlier this month and P&O Ferries were told to fix a number of safety issues before the MCA carried out a second inspection.
The ship’s detention, along with that of the Pride Of Kent, caused a shortage of ferry capacity before Easter on the key Dover-Calais route, which contributed to large queues of lorries on coastbound roads in Kent. European Highlander normally operates between Larne in Northern Ireland and Cairnryan in Scotland, while Norway serves the Liverpool-Dublin route.
