Authorities in the ports of Felixstowe, Harwich, Ipswich and Mistley have joined with private sector partners to promote the region as a major gateway into the UK. Stephen Killick reports.
So many of Britain’s coastal towns have fallen into disrepair. The combination of cheap air fares and the vagaries of weather in the UK have had a disastrous effect on holidays to the British seaside, while many businesses have simply moved away.
Clacton and Southend still pull in those who salivate at a bowl of whelks and some jellied eels, and the latter resort still enjoys a reasonable level of business confidence.
But when considering activity on the Essex coast, the really big event is taking place a few miles to the north -the creation of one of the largest economic partnerships ever formed on England’s east coast.
Known as the Haven Gateway Partnership, launched in 2001, it is a co-operative of private and public sector organisations determined to raise the economic profile of both Suffolk and north Essex.
It brings together the ports of Felixstowe, Harwich, Ipswich and Mistley as well as much of the surrounding hinterland, which includes the boroughs of Ipswich and Colchester and the north-east Essex district of Tendring.
According to David Crozier, chief executive of Essex chamber of commerce, the local authorities have a mutual interest in working together to promote the Haven area for both inward investment and tourism.
In turn, he says the private sector is looking to pick up a number of potentially lucrative regeneration schemes, most notably at Felixstowe and Harwich ports.
“Felixstowe is almost at full capacity now,” says Crozier, “which means a tremendous opportunity for shipping expansion in Essex as well as portside-related industry.”
The partnership’s aim is to show investors at home and abroad that the area around the Haven ports on the Stour and Orwell estuaries forms a major gateway not only to the east of Engiand but to the rest of the UK, providing profitable conduits for both trade and tourism to northern Europe.
Project officer Tracy Mead at Tendring district council says: ‘~ awful lot of holidaymakers arrive from the Continent at Harwich from the Hook of Holland and Belgium and we aim to make sure they want to spend time in the region rather than just drive through it.”
In 1998, nearly 1.5m passengers passed through Harwich, although the fact that they spent time in the area could say more about the traffic congestion on the A120 than a yearning to explore the underrated charms of Essex.
Local congestion
“The dualling of the A120 is one of our very top priorities,” says Mead.
Ultimately the partnership -which includes Associated British Ports, Essex county council and Harwich International Port wants dual carriageway all the way from Harwich to Stansted airport, although dualling to nearby Hare Green would ease local congestion significantly.
Stena Line president Dan Stena Olsson is one of many business people in the
region to have slammed the quality of the county’s roads.
Speaking at the naming of one of his company’s ships in Harwich earlier this
year, Olsson pointed out the significance of Harwich as one of the key roll-on/roll-off ports in Britain and its importance, not only for East Anglia, but for London and the Midlands.
With the latest plans announced to extend Harwich, including the development of adjoining Bathside Bay, road improvements are desperately needed.
Bathside owner Hutchison Ports has applied for planning permission to develop a deep-sea container terminal at Bathside Bay, including a 1,400m-long quay. This will also create 772 jobs, according to managing director, Richard Pearson, plus many more in associated industries.
The £300m development would make Harwich the second-largest container port in the UK Pearson says: “We are fully committed to the development of new deepwater container capacity, both at Bathside Bay and the nearby Port of Felixstowe. It is vital that, in order to remain competitive with European ports, the UK creates additional deepwater facilities to service the latest generation of large container vessels afloat today.”
Hutchison now has to convince planners and the government that the environmental effect will not be too great. Pressure on the government to say yes, however, will be great.
Almost 15,000 people are employed in the ports, logistics and shipping sector in the region, and when those indirectly working for the industry are included, the total workforce is estimated to be well over 25,000.
However, not everybody is convinced that the Bathside Bay scheme will bring joy to the county.
Warehouse requirements
Beris Edwards, partner at Kemsley Whiteley & Ferris, says: “While it will no doubt be good news for those involved in portside activities, it is naive to think that we will suddenly see a spurt in the number of large distribution and warehouse requirements in and around the area.
“It will probably do far more for the traditional distribution outlets in the Midlands rather than Essex, provided the A120 is sorted out.”
Most opinion is positive, however. Crozier says: “The implications for Essex from the Haven scheme are enormous, and it is vital that it happens. Essex should no longer be seen in isolation but fitting into part of the East Anglian region and playing a lead role within it.”
With residential schemes planned for the M11 corridor and massive development along the Essex and east London borders, all that is needed now is a road system to support the county and an improved train service.
“Then Essex really would be punching its weight at last,” says Crozier
