Memorandum from the Port of London Authority
(FT 05)
1. This memorandum is submitted by the Port
of London Authority, the statutory port, harbour and navigation
authority for the tidal River Thames, its estuary and tidal tributaries,
in relation to the Committee's inquiry into freight transport
and more particularly to detail the PLA's experience in promoting
the modal shift of freight from road to water.
2. In summary, the PLA would submit the
following:
— The PLA is responsible for navigation
on the tidal River Thames from Teddington to the North Sea.
— The tidal River Thames in the country's
most heavily trafficked freight inland waterway with over 1.8
million of tonnes of freight handled between wharves on the river
in 2006, representing an increase of 15% over the previous year.
— The cargoes handled are mainly bulk
materials—aggregates, waste and petroleum products.
— The interest in using the River Thames
for transporting freight is at the highest level it has been in
many years, with the PLA currently handling in excess of 20 inquiries
for new waterborne cargo-handling operations.
— A successful trial, lasting a week,
with Sainsbury's for the transport of containers between east
and west London was undertaken early in 2007, which demonstrated
the operational viability of such a service. Much remains to be
done to turn this into a regular service.
— The main impediments to increased
use of the River Thames for the transport of cargoes by water
involve the complexity of the necessary consents approvals, with
a multiplicity of organisations involved and no clear direction
as to objectives and timeliness for decision making.
— The need for wharf capacity in the
right location and at the right price is vital to the future of
water based cargo transport. London has the benefit of the safeguarded
wharves policy but significant time, expense and effort is required
to reactivate unused wharves for cargo-handling where they are
speculatively owned by developers.
— The economics of water transport
are generally less favourable than road transport, requiring flexible,
simple and swift decision making processes and a freight facility
grant system that is likewise flexible and responsive.
— A practical and quick idea for driving
the greater use of water is to require planning authorities to
include conditions in planning consents for significant developments
on or near waterways to require the use of the waterway for transport
of bulk materials to and from the sites. Such an approach is now
being taken in London through the latest amendments to the London
Plan.
— The carbon footprint of water transport
is substantially less than that of road transport. If we are serious
about meeting carbon reduction targets, a system of granting tax
credits to cargo originators where they use water transport could
be used to incentivise the use of water options.
3. The PLA's administrative area and statutory
duties extend to a distance of 150 km from the landward limits
at Teddington to the seaward limits in the outer estuary, which
roughly equate to a line drawn between Margate and Clacton. The
PLA, as a port authority, is under the auspices of the Department
for Transport, although the Port of London and River Thames is
also defined as an inland waterway, its constituent terminals
being wholly within the defined Smooth Water Line (SWL) and a
substantial number situated upstream (west) of the defined Inland
Waterways Boundary upstream of the Port of Tilbury.
4. The River Thames, in common with the
UK's other main estuarial ports, offers a number and variety of
links into the wider inland waterway network, notably to those
administered by British Waterways (the River Lea and the associated
Bow Back Rivers from Bow Creek; the Grand Union Canal from both
Limehouse Basin and Brentford; and the remaining water spaces
within the Isle of Dogs) and the Environment Agency (the non-tidal
River Thames from Teddington). Apart from the waterborne transport
of aggregates from terminals on the River Thames to floating concrete
batching plants within the Isle of Dogs used in the construction
of major development projects, which has and continues to represent
a substantial throughput of cargo, and the very occasional transport
of abnormal indivisible loads, the PLA is unaware of any current
flows of cargo between the Port of London and other parts of the
capital's inland waterway network.
5. The tidal River Thames is, by a considerable
margin, the most heavily trafficked inland waterway in the UK
(source: Waterborne Freight in the United Kingdom in 2005, published
by the Department for Transport), lifting almost 40% (equating
to 19 million tonnes) of the total goods lifted within the UK's
inland waters in 2005 and almost 45% (equating to 0.70 billion
tonne-kilometres) of total goods moved within the UK's inland
waters. In terms of internal traffic (defined as all non-seagoing
traffic between wharves situated wholly within the SWL), the pre-eminence
of the River Thames is even greater, lifting almost 55% (equating
to 1.81 million tonnes) of the total goods lifted in 2005 and
a comparable percentage (equating to 0.09 billion tonne-kilometres)
of total goods moved.
6. A year-on-year increase in the volume
of internal traffic handled within the Port of London of 15% was
recorded in 2006. Bulk cargoes dominate the list of cargo types
transported on that part of the River Thames defined as an inland
waterway, with aggregates volumes in 2006 increasing by 20% and
petroleum products by 89% from the previous year.
7. The PLA believes that there has been
an increased willingness of both existing operators within the
Port of London and businesses keen to obtain representation on
the upper reaches of the Thames to investigate the opportunities
of shifting currently road-based transport to the River Thames.
8. The Committee will doubtless be aware
of the trial on the River Thames facilitated by the PLA and undertaken
by Sainsbury's earlier this year. The trial involved the transport
by barge of ambient goods in standard ISO containers over one
week from Greenwich to Wandsworth. It was deemed to be very successful
in demonstrating that the upper reaches of the River Thames were
physically capable of being incorporated within a "just in
time" logistics operation. Indeed, the goods arrived at the
store in better condition than the comparable journey by road.
The issues in turning what a trial to a long-term operation with
the potential for very substantial levels of modal shift on the
capital's congested roads are, of course, many and varied but
primarily relate to matters of implementation (particularly the
long planning timescales), flexibility and financial viability.
The PLA continues to work with Sainsbury's and Transport for London
to assess and overcome these challenges.
9. The PLA is also working with a petroleum
products distributor operating from a riparian storage facility
in west London to facilitate the shifting of its bulk liquid cargo,
imported to the UK via the Port of London and handled at a terminal
downstream of the Dartford Crossing, from road to water. The modal
shift involved, in terms of tonneage, is substantial. However,
implementation is difficult. Whilst the multiplicity of agencies
and authorities brought together by the PLA agree that the scheme
is welcome in-principle, there are a range of planning and land
issues to overcome. The delays inherent in implementation could
ultimately lead the operator to question the viability of the
project and consequently the anticipated modal shift will not
be achieved.
10. This increasing interest in using the
River Thames is, the PLA considers, as a result of a combination
of both "push" and "pull" factors, and in
particular the strong policies promoting the transport of freight
on the River Thames adopted by the Mayor of London within the
London Plan (the Regional Spatial Strategy for London), including
the protection of riparian land facilitated through the wharf
safeguarding policy originally sponsored by the PLA, and also
continuing high levels of traffic congestion on the capital's
road network. Financial measures, and particularly the congestion
charge and, positively, the Government's Freight Facility Grant
regime, are also notable factors in this increased interest in
modal shift within London away from the roads.
11. The protection of wharves through ministerial
direction and translation through to strategic planning policy
and the Mayor of London's subsequent power to intervene in planning
decisions affecting safeguarded wharves is a very powerful instrument.
It is, however, negative in effect. Recognising that there has
been little investment in those safeguarded wharves acquired speculatively
by property developers, the PLA has been working with the London
Development Agency and the Greater London Authority to reactivate
viable wharves, including through use of compulsory purchase powers
where appropriate.
12. However, it is the PLA's experience
that the time taken to implement inland waterway schemes is invariably
longer than comparable schemes using the road network. The reactivation
of those wharves which have been acquired speculatively by developers
for cargo-handling can take many years to implement. These lengthened
timescales, together with the inherent flexibility of transporting
freight by road and the invariably lesser levels of initial investment,
result in a number of potentially viable schemes not progressing.
The PLA believes nevertheless that its role as an active facilitator
of freight transport has contributed to the increases in modal
shift seen within the Port of London.
13. The PLA believes that further fiscal
benefits may be required to fully recognise the environmental
benefits of water transport. The carbon footprint of transporting
freight on inland waterways is substantially less than that of
road transport. The PLA believes that in order to meet carbon
reduction targets, a system of granting tax credits to cargo originators
where they use water transport could be used to incentivise the
use of water options.
14. The promotion of freight modal shift
from roads to inland waterways has been a recurring political
theme over the last ten years. There has however been little systematic
analysis at a strategic level of the conditions required to actually
implement it and their transferability across the UK. To address
this, the PLA strongly recommends that Government devotes resources
to the support of a small number of pilot schemes to examine the
factors that could lead to a sustainable increase in the modal
shift of freight. These schemes would be evaluated by a small
panel of experts and recommendations made to bring about change
in planning and transport policy and both negative and positive
financial measures. It is these issues which, in the PLA's experience,
are of paramount importance to achieving necessary modal shift
to the UK's inland waterways.
October 2007
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