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Great news, there was a plan by Hutchison Ports (who own Felixstowe Port) to develop Bathside Bay in Harwich opposite Felixstowe into a container port in 2001! Let's find out what happened!
https://hutchisonports.com/media/news/bathside-bay-display-opens-in-harwich/
https://hutchisonports.com/media/news/bathside-bay-display-opens-in-harwich/
It suddenly turned out, in 2003, that it was actually a SSSI with lots of SPECIAL BIRDS!
"Major shipping lines have already been complaining about lack of capacity at Felixstowe, and ships have been turned away, it says." This is from *2003*.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2003/apr/30/guardiansocietysupplement7
"Major shipping lines have already been complaining about lack of capacity at Felixstowe, and ships have been turned away, it says." This is from *2003*.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2003/apr/30/guardiansocietysupplement7
Final approval in 2006, great, that's all settled.
https://www.maritimejournal.com/news101/industry-news/final_approval_for_bathside_bay
https://www.maritimejournal.com/news101/industry-news/final_approval_for_bathside_bay
2008!
The conditions to develop the port were so onerous, like upgrading the A120, and would take so much time to get permission, that there would be no building until 2015.
"Mr Davey said the UK planning system was a key factor in port congestion."
https://www.portstrategy.com/news101/world/europe/bathside_bay_not_until_mid_next_decade
The conditions to develop the port were so onerous, like upgrading the A120, and would take so much time to get permission, that there would be no building until 2015.
"Mr Davey said the UK planning system was a key factor in port congestion."
https://www.portstrategy.com/news101/world/europe/bathside_bay_not_until_mid_next_decade
More planning delays in 2012:
"We constantly hear that planning should not stifle the country's economic growth but then the secretary of state ... seems to go totally against that edict where Bathside Bay is concerned." Said the District Council leader.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-20505278
"We constantly hear that planning should not stifle the country's economic growth but then the secretary of state ... seems to go totally against that edict where Bathside Bay is concerned." Said the District Council leader.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-20505278
From 2017, mention that dredging the bay would 'cost a fortune' and that they couldn't afford to restore a listed gantry (WTF??) presumably as part of the planning permission conditions.
https://www.harwichandmanningtreestandard.co.uk/news/15424346.doubts-are-cast-over-future-of-300-million-bathside-bay-development/
https://www.harwichandmanningtreestandard.co.uk/news/15424346.doubts-are-cast-over-future-of-300-million-bathside-bay-development/
And then the trail runs cold in 2019, with nothing being built...
https://bluzer.co.uk/whats-happening-with-bathside-bay https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/18033906.dredging-harwich-port-wont-impact-wildlife/
https://bluzer.co.uk/whats-happening-with-bathside-bay https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/18033906.dredging-harwich-port-wont-impact-wildlife/
You cannot have a system of planning that makes port expansion so difficult, for whatever reason, that a proposal from 2001 cannot be built for nearly 20 years. You cannot do this because your port system will collapse, as has happened this year.
"Had HPUK's plans for the Felixstowe South expansion worked out as originally hoped, the facility would have opened by early summer - instead, construction had only just begun."
That was in 2008.
https://www.portstrategy.com/news101/world/europe/bathside_bay_not_until_mid_next_decade
That was in 2008.
https://www.portstrategy.com/news101/world/europe/bathside_bay_not_until_mid_next_decade
