Feb 25 2008
PD Ports (PDP) has today announced that it has received formal planning approval for its Northern Gateway Container Terminal (NGCT) at Teesport in the North East of England.
The Secretary of State for Transport (Ruth Kelly) has announced her approval dated 21.2.08 for the Harbour Revision Order (HRO) plans submitted by PD Ports in April 2006. This is the last and most important external approval required to finalise the NGCT business case and create a circa £300m investment in the deep sea container terminal on the South bank of the river Tees. The local planning committee of Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council had previously given its unanimous approval for the land based elements of the scheme in April 2007.
The HRO and accompanying Transport & Works Act Order (TWAO) have now been approved. This means the project has gained all the necessary statutory consents in order to commence the development phase.
“This is very significant news for the North of England and for the supply chains of very many UK companies, commented PD Ports’, Group Chief Executive Officer, David Robinson.
“The HRO approval is a major forward step to the financial viability of the project and subject to the commercial hurdles, will allow the PD Ports team to focus on its delivery. This decision will ultimately give shippers and shipping lines serving the needs of the North of England and Scotland a valuable alternative to their traditional use of the Southern UK ports when trading, with particularly the Far East and other major global markets.
“We have achieved a successful planning approval for this large scale port infrastructure project in record time. It is less than 22 months since we submitted our plans. This further demonstrates the excellent support we have been given from all the stakeholders in this project and underlines the need for this type of development to support the regional economy. I would like to put on record our thanks to all those parties both locally and regionally who have worked so tirelessly to help us achieve the Northern Gateway’s successful planning approval. We have still got much to do to make the plan become a reality but we will be working hard to commence detailed engineering design, commence implementation and see construction begin on site as soon as possible.
“Today is a significant step for Teesport and for the maritime industry as a whole. A deep sea container terminal on the Tees will attract container ships direct to Teesport from around the globe. All those imported goods needed for Northern consumers and retailers in the likes of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester and Newcastle can now travel the short distance from port to consumer via retailers’ shelves.
“This will also result in tens of millions of lorry miles being saved by stopping the wastefulness of all those containers being landed at a Southern UK port but being destined by road or rail for the North. The new terminal will bring hundreds of new jobs to the Tees Valley and in addition to this, when NGCT is completed, PDP also expects to attract more retail distribution centre activity to PDP's vacant strategic port land,” concluded Robinson.
Northern Gateway Container Terminal profile:
- Deep sea container terminal at Teesport, on South bank of the River Tees
- Anticipated circa £300 million project cost (to be built in phases)
- Will create up to 5,500 jobs in the Tees Valley
- 1.5 million teu (twenty foot equivalent unit) capacity, to add to the existing capacity
- 1000 metres of new riverside quay
- Berth pocket depths of 16 metres
- Channel depth to be dredged to a new depth of -14.5 metres
- When complete the terminal will have three berths capable of handling the modern vessels carrying up to 10,000 teu of containers