The revised criteria announced by the DfT appear to contain nothing new in regard to the Port of Dover. As no other port has asked to be privatised, one imagines that the DfT are simply dotting the i's and crossing the t's on trust port privatisation documentation in preparation for flogging off the others one day. I detect a note of weary cynicism in the response from DHB which has stated that these requirements are all fulfilled in the original proposal it submitted light years ago and that it sees these revised criteria as reflecting the government's desire for similar schemes for "other" trust ports:
"The Board is confident that its innovative and ground-breaking privatisation scheme, which it proposed in 2010, will be seen to meet the Government's criteria in all respects. The Port authority also sees the revised criteria as a clear reflection of Government's desire for similar community-focused schemes to be brought forward by other trust ports."
DHB chairman Roger Mountford has added:
"With an emphasis on enduring community participation, which has remained an integral part of the Port's scheme through its Port of Dover Community Trust proposal, the Port considers the criteria to provide the missing piece of the jigsaw which now fully aligns Dover's vision for the future and Government policy on trust ports."
By this, he appears to be saying that DHB has included community participation in its proposal from the start and that the government has finally caught up by including this in its criteria and is now aligned with DHB's vision.
The government would therefore appear to have belatedly ticked all the boxes and finally managed to produce legislation to a standard which meets DHB's approval, given that the latter are well aware that they will have to grudgingly eventually accede to these requirements even if the government has been so unbelievably tardy and disorganised in managing to put them together.
http://assets.dft.gov.uk/publications/sale-trust-ports-statement/sale-trust-ports-statement.pdf