Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favour of retaining as much of our maritime heritage as possible, but you have to be a bit cold eyed and calculating about these things. The fact is that most attempts at preservation fail and those that don't struggle, even the most famous examples. When preparing articles on some of these ships for Model Boats magazine, including the ships at Portsmouth, Chatham and HMS Belfast I have talked at length to the PR people responsible for promoting them and all have stressed how difficult it is to keep the money coming in. The basic problem is that when everyone who is likely to be interested has seen the ship the visitor numbers reduce to a trickle.
The MOD can't even afford operational warships and certainly have no money for preservation projects, in fact they have even offloaded HMS Victory to a trust so any money for a jobbing Type 42 would be completely out of the question. The public at large are not much interested in maritime history either which is why the Science Museum are putting their model collection into store and during my visit to the new Southampton Sea City museum last week I discovered they have done just the same. Other museums are doing the same too - it's all touchy feely interactive stuff these days - not hardware.
So official funding is pretty much non existent and preserved ships must depend upon commercial appeal. Even if you moor HMS Liverpool on the right side of the Mersey she will only prove to be a transient visitor attraction and after a couple of years or so income from that source will be vastly outweighed by maintenance liabilities. I doubt if her hull is in first class condition with decommissioning looming and replacing thinned plating is prohibitively expensive. You can't stage weddings or corporate events aboard a type 42 like you can on Warrior, Victory or Cutty Sark etc., she is just too small, and without that sort of income you simply won't have a viable business plan.
I wish things were otherwise but to be honest I do feel that there are more deserving causes for preservation than HMS Liverpool who the majority of the population will scarcely be aware of. Belfast's situation is precarious and just look at her prime location below!
Colin