Channel. These developments rendered the old Bristol City Docks in the Floating Harbour redundant as a commercial dock, and they have since been redeveloped as the centrepiece of many leisure, residential and retail developments in and around Bristol city centre. A sand company was the last to use the docks commercially in 1991. The closure of the power stations at Portishead also made the Portishead Dock redundant, and it was finally closed in 1992. In 1991 Bristol City Council sold a 150-year lease of the Avonmouth and Royal Portbury Docks to First Corporate Shipping Ltd, a private company owned by Terence Mordaunt and David Ord. The business trades as The Bristol Port Company (BPC). Since then over £600m has been invested in the docks and the annual tonnage throughput has increased from 4m tonnes to 14m tonnes. Up to 2014 the company made several applications to buy the site's freehold but these were rejected. Following a referendum in 2012, the city voters created the role of Mayor, subsequently electing George Ferguson. In March 2015 he and his cabinet decided to sell the freehold for £10 million but retain a 12.5% non-voting stake in the company. The city's council members voted on 2 June to object to the decision on the grounds of poor value for money, and referred it back to the mayor. Two weeks later the Mayor's cabinet resolved to sell the freehold. Following criticism by the editor of Money Week magazine, George Ferguson told the Financial Times the deal was exceptional value for the city. First Corporate Shipping donated £25,000 to both Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt during the 2019 Conservative party leadership contest. Freeport The Port of Bristol is one of the six sites Boris Johnson has proposed for a Freeport, saying they were an "excellent" way to boost investment in left-behind parts of the country. The Bristol Port Company welcomed the news, seeing it having the potential to boost investment opportunities in and around UK ports. However some port and trade experts predicted the main effect would be to divert activity into the port from the surrounding region rather than create new jobs. New container terminal A new deepsea container terminal is planned in Avonmouth. Sources Bristol Port website. Retrieved 29 March 2005 at 15:08 BST. External links The Bristol Port Company website Port of Bristol panoramic tour from the BBC Port of Bristol archive collection