Joanne Fryett: Port scheme ‘will benefit North-East economy’

9:37am Tuesday 26th February 2008

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NEWS that PD Ports has won its long-fought campaign for the construction of a deep-water container terminal on the River Tees should be welcomed throughout the North East.

Not only are the plans for the Northern Gateway scheme estimated to create more than 5,500 jobs, they will also boost the reputation of Teesport as a major international port and benefit the whole of the North-East economy.

With the port opened up to more international trade, the potential for economic growth will stretch far beyond the docks themselves.

The redeveloped port will prove crucial to the pharmaceutical and chemical industries, which are earmarked for between £8bn and £10bn of potential investment over the next few years.

Equally, it should encourage other retailers to follow in the footsteps of Asda, which uses Teesport as a less congested alternative to southern ports and ships goods into its import centre at Teesport.

It is hard to quantify the full value of this development because economic benefits would spread much further than the port. But a thriving port means a thriving economy and this is why this approval has created such a buzz throughout the business community.

However, approval of the £300m investment plan has only come about thanks to the hard work and dedication of a number of people, most notably PD development director, Martyn Pellew.

It is testament to his perseverance and dedication over the past three years of campaigning that this development has finally received the go-ahead from the Government.

The backing of Teesside MPs, the North-East Chamber of Commerce, the Association of North-East Councils, regional development agency One NorthEast, Tees Valley Regeneration and The Northern Echo have also all helped drive the campaign through to this satisfactory conclusion. It is a victory for business sense that this result has been achieved.

The campaign faced little opposition, proof in itself of its potential value to so many parties in the region.

The development will provide a muchneeded boost to help bridge the North- South economic divide and will enable international freight to pass directly to northern ports rather than travelling the length of the country by road.

It is a significant moment for the North-East and we look forward to completion of the development in 2011.

* Joanne Fryett is the North-East Chamber of Commerce's head of member relations.