[Lucy Knight]

Here is copy of article in current Private eye

It will be worth looking for articles in future editions as I believe far more information was passed to magazine.

No.1446 16-29 June 2017
Page 37. 'Canal and River Trust' 'Planet dearth'

Liverpool's historic Planet lightship has been sold off to an unnamed buyer for less than half what the Canal and River Trust (CRT) spent on towing it away from Canning Dock (see Eye 1434) - while the charity's right to sell the vessel at all remains hotly disputed.

Correspondence seen by the Eye reveals that the CRT sold Planet for £12,500, significantly less than the estimated £70,000 scrap price given in a formal valuation last year, let alone its value as the last manned lightship to have worked in UK waters and a long-standing feature of the Liverpool waterfront.


The trust blamed Planet's owner Alan Roberts (pictured) for the price, saying his efforts to gain publicity over the removal of his boat had "the effect if putting off potential purchasers". It is still trying to bill Mr Roberts a further £43,000 for the cost of moving Planet to Sharpness, plus storage and legal costs related to the sale.

Mr Roberts had been running a cafe on the boat, as well as hosting a small volunteer-run maritime radio museum. In April 2016 the CRT sent him a "boat removal notice" over £3,500 in berthing fees owed to the trust, which manages Canning Dock, a tourist hotspot between the Merseyside Maritime Museum and the Museum of Liverpool. "We would be disappointed if the Light Ship were to leave [Liverpool] given its historic links to the area, wrote CRT manager Chantelle Seaborn in the letter.

The CRT's subsequent actions did not bear this out. Although the berthing fee issue was being resolved in the county court (the bill has since been paid), the trust claimed it had the right to remove and sell Planet under the terms of its berthing agreement, and that it could pass on all the costs of this to Mr Roberts. Last September it seized Planet and towed it to distant Sharpness, near Gloucester.

The tug boat alone cost £14,000, with extra costs for the likes of insurance and passage planning to take Planet out to sea. This also meant Mr Roberts now faced double that vast cost in order to reclaim his vessel and have it towed back.

Having racked up silly costs over the row and then sold Planet for a pittance, the CRT is now likely to be out of pocket. Seaborn said in a statement last month that the buyer would do some restoration work and then offer Planet for resale. "Hopefully a business, group or individual in Liverpool is able to step forward and purchase the renovated lightship and bring her back to Liverpool under new management," she said. Thanks to the CRT, though, there's no guarantee of Planet returning to the city.

Mr Roberts says he believes the CRT intended from the outset to deprive him permanently of his ship and is planning legal action with the help of no-win-no-fee lawyers.