Southampton is celebrating this week after news that Liverpool’s plans to convert itself into a turnaround cruise terminal have suffered a serious setback.

For those of you who are still not familiar with the turnaround cruise battle between Liverpool and Southampton: Liverpool has made a request to the Government to be allowed to become a turnaround terminal, i.e. a port where cruises are allowed to start and end. The thorny issue is the £18 million the terminal had previously received from the Government and Europe to build its terminal.

Ever since Liverpool’s application an unseemly battle has raged between the city and other turnaround terminals such as Southampton. The latter argued that it was unfair for a terminal that received public funding to be allowed to compete with other terminals that did not receive such funding.

Liverpool’s offer was to repay £5.3 million of the £18 million it received in aid money. This did not satisfy Southampton.

The end result was a government inquiry. Mike Penning, the shipping minister, has now ruled against Liverpool. He said that there were "persuasive arguments that this level of repayment would be insufficient to reflect the adverse impact on competition with other ports. I therefore intend shortly to seek independent advice on a more appropriate figure."

One can’t help but think that the whole issue has been blown out of proportion by Southampton. It handles 350 ships every year, while Liverpool had deals with 12 cruise ships to embark on cruises from there during the coming summer months, had its application been successful.