Trust’s port plan provides new process industry ‘road’ for Yorkshire
20 Nov 2019
The Canal and River Trust has won planning permission for from Leeds City Council for its proposed Leeds Inland Port at Stourton Wharf, West Yorkshire.
Now it is in talks with West Yorkshire Combined Authority to secure the £3.37 million needed for the scheme so that construction can begin next summer.
Aggregates will initially be the first goods to be delivered to the site. Plans to accommodate other goods and container freight are also under development.
Trust Yorkshire & North East director Sean McGinley said the site would have the capacity to take up to 500 million tonnes of freight traffic off the roads.
He explained: “The overall marketplace for freight within West Yorkshire is over 10 million tonnes per annum and the potential to move a considerable proportion of this by water is high.”
“Leeds Inland Port presents a fantastic opportunity for our charity to help to reduce the environmental impact of transporting goods, reducing carbon emissions and road congestion, as inland waterways across the world continue to be effective and efficient transport corridors.
Improving the connection between Leeds and the North Sea through the canal network would encourage further development of the inland waterway freight sector across Britain and internationally said McGinley.
Minister for the Northern Powerhouse, the Rt Hon Jake Berry MP, said: “This major infrastructure project supports the wider investment the Government is making in Leeds with over £694.5 million of local growth funding to spur regeneration, create new jobs and level up communities.”
The Yorkshire and North East waterways region handles on average 330,000 tonnes of freight per annum. The Aire & Calder Navigation is classified as a commercial waterway under the 1963 Transport Act and is recognised as priority freight route in the Trust’s freight policy.
