News

A study into the impact of Felixstowe Port's expansion plans, to be published next month, does not include anything on lorry park availability. Suffolk Coastal district council, along with the East of England Development Agency and Hutchison Ports, has commissioned consultants at GHK to investigate the requirement for port-related logistics land over the next 20 years.

GHK director Jamie Simpson says traffic volumes, container storage demand, warehousing and traffic interchanges have  all been looked at, but the provision of essential lorry parking facilities has not. "We tangentially touch on that," he says. "We are mindful of that subject." He adds that additional work on parking is being done separately.

Suffolk Coastal's chief executive Stephen Baker is inviting companies involved in port-related activities to discuss the study's findings at workshop in September. A spokesman says: "It's looking at the logistics side of things. We will be talking to all interested parties about the report, the things that the port of Felixstowe will need. Lorry parks are not mentioned in the study."

Karl Rout, owner of Suffolk's Orwell Crossing lorry park, says the main road into the port town could be flooded with extra lorries after the expansion work: "How can the A14 cope with all the traffic?" By 2010, the South Reconfiguration scheme will create an additional 730 metres of deep-water quay equipped with seven cranes. A second phase to be completed in 2014 will  create four new deep-water berths and capacity for 5.3m TEUs every year.