You could soon be able to get MARRIED on board a Mersey Ferry.

It comes after calls for weddings and other big events on the vessels were made at this week’s Liverpool City Region transport committee meeting, with a Mersey Ferries official saying there was 'no reason' why it could not be arranged.

Before now, weddings have not been possible on the world-famous ferries, but at Thursday’s meeting, there was good news for couples hoping to tie the knot on the river.

It comes as plans for the first new Mersey Ferry in 60 years are well under way, and Gary Evans, head of customer delivery, gave to the committee an update on the procurement process.

Following the presentation, which included results of a public survey on what people wanted to see on board the new vessel, committee member Steve Foulkes said: “The thing I see is that people would hire that boat for a number of events and recently, the government announced a relaxation in the various places where you can get married.

“We’ve always had a struggle with getting wedding events and stuff like that, which is a big market. So hopefully the design will take into account the ability to do big events for a good income source and to be a big attraction.”

He also said he wanted to see the boat have “big open spaces”, so that events such as international conferences could take place, with delegates brought on board.

He added: “I am excited about the new design. It’s not going to look new, but it’s going to be functionally newer and that sounds to me the best of both worlds. We should look for the design to allow for big events that will make lots of money.”

Responding to Cllr Foulkes’ statement, Mr Evans said: “The design will create not just a wide open space, but also a flexible element to be able to close areas off. A lot of the demand we get isn’t just for the whole boat, but maybe just for small sections of it.

“The wedding [question] is more complex. We certainly will research it. There’s a bit of complication with events [taking place] in the middle of the river, but there’s no reason why we can’t be on the side [of the river] for the actual wedding ceremony and then go into the river afterwards.”

Concluding the discussion, chair Cllr Liam Robinson said: “Marry across the Mersey, eh?”

Currently, the Mersey Ferries are available for hire for private events for up to 250 passengers, but not weddings.

The website says: “Unfortunately we have not been able to get a license for weddings due to the fact that we have the capability to ‘sail away’ during the ‘Known Impediments’ part of the ceremony, you can however have a blessing aboard.”

Presenting the results of the survey, which took place in August, Mr Evans said there had been more than 1,500 responses.

It brought out statistics such as that 40% of leisure ferry users took the ferry as part of a day trip to the area, most commuters wanted to see the ferry’s “traditional feel” retained, and that there was interest in the boats having the ability to change to help advertise special events in the city.

Mr Evans added: “There was nothing in the research results that was a surprise for us. We are in a good place to move on with procurement sooner rather than later.”

In August, it was announced that the new ferry is expected to go into service from 2021.