Steel structure collapse led to port's closure

The UK's second busiest ferry port closed in December after two vessels made "contact" with a steel structure causing it to collapse, the port's owner has said.

In written evidence to a Senedd committee, Stena Line said damage was caused to a berth at Holyhead port "predominantly" used by Irish Ferries.

Stena, which also runs ferries from the port, does not name the company operating the vessels which caused the damage, but said that one was arriving and another departing.

Stena said both incidents, on 6 and 7 December, came before the peak of Storm Darragh, when a red weather warning was in place.

The incidents led to the closure of both berths at the port because of the "interconnecting nature" of the support structures - the terminals run parallel to each other.

In its evidence Stena Line said that "speculative comments" to the media about the incidents had been "unhelpful".

A senior company manager is one of a number of witnesses appearing in front of the economy committee on Thursday, which is taking a full day's worth of evidence.

Welsh Transport Secretary Ken Skates and Economy Secretary Rebecca Evans will also appear.

In its written submission Stena Line repeated that it was limited in the amount of information it could provide because it did not want to prejudice an ongoing insurance claim.

In previous evidence to the Commons' Welsh Affairs Committee Stena Line's head of UK ports confirmed that there were "berthing incidents" on 6 and 7 December which rendered both ferry terminals inoperable.

Ian Davies went on to say: "Those incidents are now subject to an insurance claim and I can give no further details without prejudicing that insurance claims at this time I'm afraid."

This was described as "very frustrating" by committee chair Ruth Jones.

The port was closed between 7 December and 16 January, with poor sea conditions delaying diving operations to inspect the damage caused to the terminal, according to the port's owners.

Subsequent inspections were also delayed by sea conditions or visibility.

BBC Wales has been told that Irish Ferries were invited to attend the evidence session but did not respond to the initial invitation or a follow up.

Irish Ferries has been asked to comment.

Holyhead's second berth T5 was reopened on 16 January, with both Stena Line and Irish Ferries now able to run a full schedule with the same number of sailings and capacity as previously.

Work is ongoing to reopen T3 as soon as safely possible.