FREDERIKSHAVN: The demolition has begun after Frederikshavn Port was made municipal in May this year with a debt of almost 1.7 billion. DKK. A legal investigation has been ordered, which has not yet been presented.
In November 2022, the then chairman of the board Bo Uggerhøj, together with CEO Mikkel Seedorf Sørensen, made a persistent but futile attempt to ensure the port's liquidity.
Email correspondence between the chairman of the board and the port director on the one hand and Mayor Birgit Hansen (S) and Municipal Director Thomas Eriksen on the other hand is freely available on Frederikshavn Municipality's website.
This has happened after the Liberal Party in Frederikshavn has complained to the Danish Social Appeals Board, and the case is on its way to being heard in the city council chamber today, Wednesday.
The correspondence shows that Bo Uggerhøj received an email from the mayor on Tuesday, November 15. 2022 regarding a purchase offer for port land. The chairman of the board had a potential customer ready, but he was supposed to be notified two days later, Thursday, November 17.
In the email, Birgit Hansen writes that formalities must be observed, which means that a sale must go through the municipality's finance committee and on to the city council, and that sensors have been placed with the owners. She concludes:
“If the port wants clarification – raw for the unsweetened – then you can ask for a case at the finance committee meeting. And that is in December.
The good potential buyers know that very well. That it has to be about the owners, and the owners have not had it at meetings.”
To this Bo Uggerhøj replies that it would be optimal to have an answer by Thursday, so that the sales opportunity can be exploited.
This triggers the following response from the mayor:
“The short answer: no to sale
Explore other options as discussed between Mikkel and Thomas
[ed. port director Mikkel Seedorf Sørensen and municipal director Thomas Eriksen]
So return to the board of directors in morning
Owner is not in the mood to sell as proposed by the board”
Left-wing politician: The city council was not consulted
This process has prompted Jens Borup, a city council member for the Left, to complain to the Danish Social Appeals Board. Among other things, because the city council was not consulted.
- That is one of the reasons why we have complained. The mayor says that the city council has been consulted. But it should have gone directly from the port's board to the municipal council. We have not been asked at all - it has not been presented to us at all. The port's board is left with an understanding that a sale has been presented to the entire city council, says Jens Borup, who adds:
- And we were also not informed that Bo Uggerhøj resigned as chairman of the board for three weeks. He is then persuaded to continue three weeks later. Birgit Hansen keeps us all in the dark except for June Menne (S) and John Lamp Henriksen (K), who both sit on both the municipal council and the port's board.
The email in which Bo Uggerhøj resigns as chairman of the board is also on the municipality's website.
This is certainly far from the last time that the city council in Frederikshavn will deal with the crisis-stricken port.
DOI.dk has tried in vain to get a comment from mayor Birgit Hansen (S).
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