LIVERPOOL’S most powerful politician has offered to hold peace talks to allay fears that his city will cash in on Southampton’s booming cruise industry.

Council leader Joe Anderson has volunteered to travel to the south coast or host civic leaders in the north-west.

The olive branch was extended as Government ministers continued to consult on whether ships should be allowed to start their voyages from Liverpool.

The Merseyside city has been handed £21m of taxpayers’ money to be able to host liners – on the condition that it operates as a one-stop destination.

Its port bosses now want to pay back £5.3m of that sum for the right to see vessels start and finish their trips in the city.

The move has angered business and political leaders in Hampshire, who say competition would not be on a level playing field as long as public cash is involved.

And while they are happy to meet with Cllr Anderson, his conciliatory words have received short shrift from Southampton City Council leader Cllr Royston Smith and city port director Doug Morrison.

They want their counterparts to pay back all of the public cash they have been given – even the subsidy handed to them from the European Union.

Ex-merchant navy man Cllr Anderson insists that his city will not pose a threat to Southampton’s privately-funded industry.

He added that Liverpool was paying back all that was being asked of it by the Government.

“We don’t want to fall out with Southampton,” he said.

“People have been given the impression that Liverpool is going to dominate the cruise industry – it is absolute nonsense.

I am more than happy to come down to speak to the leader of Southampton City Council and the port director and any business leaders down there and we have got no problem with them coming up to see what we are proposing.

“I genuinely wish Southampton well in their cruise line operations.

If the EU come back to us and say they are not happy with the use of the money then that is up to them – but our clear understanding is that that is not going to be the case.”

In a briefing paper to the Government, Liverpool claims that Southampton currently dominates the UK cruise market with a 65 per cent share of the turnaround trade, while its revamped facility would expect to reach just five per cent.

Yesterday, the Daily Echo revealed how plans for a £30m fifth cruise terminal in Southampton may be delayed by a year or scrapped altogether pending the results of the consultation.

Last night Doug Morrison said: “I would like Mr Anderson to explain why Liverpool should be allowed to use taxpayers’ funding where Southampton does not have access to it. This point still has to be addressed.”

Mr Morrison, Cllr Smith and Romsey and Southampton North MP Caroline Nokes all said that they would be happy to meet Cllr Anderson to discuss the matter, but added that their stance remained the same.

HERE’S how residents in Liverpool are being informed about their battle to claim a slice of Southampton’s hard-earned cruise market - this editorial comment recently appeared in the Liverpool Daily Post:

IS THERE some particularly annoying football result involving one of Merseyside’s teams that has stuck in Southampton’s collective craw? Or did they naively think they might stand a chance of being named as Capital of Culture in 2008, in Liverpool’s place, on the strength of its still-to-be-built £19m arts centre?

Whatever it is, they continually appear to have it in for our fair city, seizing on every available opportunity to snipe at the proposals to convert the cruiser liner berth at the Pier Head into a turnaround terminal.

As we have pointed out here before, Southampton is so demonstrably distant from Liverpool that surely any improvement in the Pier Head facilities could have only a negligible impact on the south coast city’s cruise trade.

So what are they worried about?

Officials in Liverpool have been at pains to point out that they only want to upgrade the city’s facilities with the aim of extending the cruise market, rather than depriving other ports of potential business – but Southampton seems unable to accept this point of view, selfishly attempting to cling on to every possible passenger as though they have no option but to sail from the south coast.

Yesterday, Southampton was at it again, claiming that Liverpool had made a “serious omission” in its proposals to the Government, and had failed to come clean about the full scale of its plans.

Liverpool only wants a slice of a cake that could prove economically essential to the city in these difficult times – and has offered to repay a substantial portion of the public money it received in building the existing Pier Head berth.

But Southampton is insisting that every penny of public subsidy is repaid, branding Liverpool’s plans “potentially illegal” if this is not done.

It is time a truce was called in this ongoing feud, even if council leader Joe “Affable” Anderson has to make the long trek south for clear-the-air talks with his Southampton counterparts.

It is difficult – nay, impossible – to imagine Liverpool kicking off with similar indignation if the boot was on the other foot, and Southampton, say, intended to expand its own facilities.

They need to be shown the error of their ways, in no uncertain terms.