GOVERNMENT plans for expanding ports such as Teesport are “not fit for purpose” until major changes are made, according to a damning report by MPs.
The plans - in a ports’ national policy statement (NPS) - should not be finalised before the Government has made clear its parallel planning policies for road and rail, the report from the House of Commons Transport Committee said.
The findings will strike a chord with Teesport owner PD Ports (PDP), which has repeatedly called for vital rail upgrades that would make it easier to ship goods from the port to destinations across the North of England. NPSs are part of the new planning system for major national infrastructure projects, with the Government’s draft NPS for ports including plans up to 2030.
In its report, the committee criticised what it regarded as a lack of evidence to underpin the policy for port development.
MPs said the Government had admitted that its forecasts for growth in port traffic did not take into account the impacts of the recession.
The committee called for these forecasts to be updated urgently and warned that, unless this work was undertaken, there was a danger that the need for new ports would have to be argued in each development application - which an NPS was introduced to prevent.
The committee said: “Our witnesses, from across the spectrum, told us that the ports policy should be clearly co-ordinated with that for national road and rail networks. Yet the Government seems to be rushing the ports’ NPS through with unnecessary haste.”
An integrated transport network is seen as vital for Teesport owner PD Ports (PDP), which is looking to attract another major retailer to the area. Asda and Tesco have already opened huge distribution centres at the port. PDP wants to position Teesport as a port-centric logistics hub that can handle larger freight volumes and therefore help to reduce already congested ports in the south. But for this to happen, the company says that more funds need to be channeled into infrastructure improvements along the east side of the country.