Archived press release

Bathside Bay Must Be Saved

11 February 2004

Friends of the Earth will today (Wednesday 11^th February) call on Hutchison Ports (UK) Ltd. to withdraw its application to develop a new deep sea container port at Bathside Bay in Essex, suggesting the port authority instead focuses development on the existing facility across the estuary in Felixstowe South.

Hutchison Ports (UK) Ltd's application to develop a new container port at Bathside Bay is currently scheduled to go to a public inquiry after objections from environmental organisations and local people. But the company has since made a second application to extend their existing facilities at Felixstowe South on the other side of the Stour and Orwell estuary.

Friends of the Earth will call on the company to abandon the Bathside Bay proposals at a pre-inquiry meeting taking place today in Harwich. It will argue that the two sites are roughly equal in size and capacity [1], but the Bathside Bay development will destroy some 69 hectares of protected mudflats. By withdrawing the more damaging application, Hutchison could avoid the need for an expensive and lengthy public inquiry.

If both sites were given the go-ahead, the impact on the estuary and on the local area would be devastating. A dual development is also likely to raise concerns in Government over the creation of a monopoly in the deep sea container ports industry, Friends of the Earth believes.

Friends of the Earth East of England Regional Campaign Coordinator Mary Edwards said:

"Hutchison's have conceded that the development of Bathside Bay will damage the environment. They now have an ideal opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to minimising that damage by focusing their developments on Felixstowe South. Expansion on this side of the estuary will make the most of existing facilities without damaging precious wildlife sites."

She added that the situation highlighted the need for a national ports' strategy for the UK. Friends of the Earth is a member of PortsWatch, which launched its manifesto for a national strategy for ports last week [2].

Friends of the Earth objections to the proposed Bathside Bay development Bay are based on the impact it will have on:

• the environment and wildlife
• the communities that live by the bay
• local and regional transport network.

The environmental group argues that the Felixstowe South proposal is less damaging, provided that issues surrounding transport to and from the port are resolved.

Notes

[1] The proposed development in Felixstowe South will have a capacity of 1.5m TEUs (twenty foot equivalent units) compared to 1.7m TEUs at Bathside Bay.

[2] PortsWatch is a consortium of eight environmental and transport NGOs including Friends of the Earth, RSPB, the Wildlife Trusts, and the Campaign to Protect Rural England. See www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/transport/portswatch/

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust