Southampton City Council (SCC) is seeking business partners for a consolidation centre outside the city which it hopes to have running by 2009. Councillor and cabinet member for transport and the environment Gavin Dick says the scheme has already attracted one major commercial partner. Now SCC is seeking others, although Dick says the centre could run with a single partner.
He adds that it could offer efficiencies to the whole city - "not just
retail, but the university, hotels and the council. There are 100 commercial buildings in the centre which take deliveries." A site has been earmarked and there have been suggestions that it will be on the M27. This would be logical but Dick stresses that such suggestions are simply rumours. The council is trying to assess the cost of the consolidation centre but hopes that none of it will be paid for by domestic taxes. "The next round of EU funding comes available in 2008 and we hope to benefit from that," says Dick. Southampton is looking for other cities to become partners within the UK and on the Continent to secure a higher level of funding.
Any shortfall in costs will theoretically be covered by its participants. "Our current partner believes that the efficiencies it will gain from the consolidation centre will save it money," says Dick, not least because the centre will allow for 24/7deliveries.
However the received wisdom about consolidation centres is that while
they bring long term environmental and social benefits, they add to transport costs. Dick explains that Southampton's medieval streets are not suited to LGV traffic and "a single truck in Bedford Place can tie up traffic for three hours", forcing up costs to suppliers and operators alike.
