A STRICKEN warships collection went into liquidation last night despite an 11th-hour attempt to save it.

Community leaders said it would now be difficult to keep the vessels on the Mersey after the Warships Preservation Trust went into insolvency.

Wirral Borough Council and the North West Development Agency (NWDA) threw the trust a lifeline funding package of £162,000 last week, but it was not enough to keep the attraction on Birkenhead docks going.

Now the council says it hopes to keep the fleet together on Merseyside - but the collapse of the Trust has made this a difficult task.

Council leader Steve Foulkes said: "We offered as much assistance as we could. We were hoping the trust would not go into insolvency until a solution had been found, but the board members had to make that decision themselves at the end of the day."

Cllr Foulkes said if the council bailed the Trust out, it could add 1% to council tax.

He said: "It is difficult to offer any more financial assistance because we would be using public money, but we want the ships to stay on the Wirral."

The warships are being forced to move from their current location in Birkenhead after 15 years because of development plans for nearby warehouses.

Mersey Docks and Harbour Company (MDHC) have offered a temporary home for the warships on the East Float, but the site is not big enough for the collection's star attraction, the U534, which is the only German U-boat to have been raised from the seabed.

It is owned by a Danish company, Den Bla Avis, and unless a new home can be found for the U-boat it will be returned to Denmark. Trust chairman Sir Philip Goodhart said the crippling cost of the move and the expiry of the Trust's berthing agreement meant insolvency was the only option - despite the offer of £50,000 from the council and £112,000 from the NWDA.

He said: "This would not cover the cost of moving the ships.

"A new berthing agreement would also be very expensive. It is too soon to say exactly what will happen with the ships. I very much hope they will stay in Wirral. It is up to the liquidator to say who will now have responsibility of moving them.

"It looks as though the future of the collection depends upon the MDHC and with Wirral Borough Council."

Wally Bennett, the trust's former project director, said without a berthing agreement, the attraction could not operate. Mr Bennett said he was "extremely sad" at the situation which has left 11 people unemployed. He said: "Merseyside and the nation have lost a significant maritime heritage attraction." Stephen Maddox, Chief Executive of Wirral

Council said: "Wirral Council regrets the Warship Preservation Trust's decision to go into voluntary liquidation.

"We have worked closely with the Trust, particularly over the last six months, to try and address some of the internal financial issues they faced.

A spokesman for MDHC said: "We offered the trust an alternative location but it declined."

jessicashaughnessy@dailypost.co.uk