Ports in Wales
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House of Commons Welsh Affairs Committee Ports in Wales Fifteenth Report of Session 2008–09 Report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 27 October 2009 HC 601 Published on 6 November 2009 by authority of the House of Commons London: The Stationery Office Limited £0.00 The Welsh Affairs Committee The Welsh Affairs Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration, and policy of the Office of the Secretary of State for Wales (including relations with the National Assembly for Wales). Current membership Dr Hywel Francis MP (Labour, Aberavon) (Chairman) Mr David T.C. Davies MP (Conservative, Monmouth) Ms Nia Griffith MP (Labour, Llanelli) Mrs Siân C. James MP (Labour, Swansea East) Mr David Jones MP (Conservative, Clwyd West) Mr Martyn Jones MP (Labour, Clwyd South) Rt Hon Alun Michael MP (Labour and Co-operative, Cardiff South and Penarth) Mr Albert Owen MP (Labour, Ynys Môn) Mr Mark Pritchard MP (Conservative, The Wrekin) Mr Mark Williams MP (Liberal Democrat, Ceredigion) Mr Hywel Williams MP (Plaid Cymru, Caernarfon) Powers The committee is one of the Departmental select committees, the powers of which are set out in House of Commons Standing Orders, principally in SO No 152. These are available on the Internet via www.parliament.uk. Publications The reports and evidence of the Committee are published by The Stationery Office by Order of the House. All publications of the Committee (including press notices) are on the internet at www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/welsh_affairs_committee.cfm. Committee staff The current staff of the Committee is Dr Sue Griffiths (Clerk), Alison Groves (Second Clerk), Carys Jones (Committee Specialist), Anwen Rees (Inquiry Manager), Christine Randall (Senior Committee Assistant), Annabel Goddard (Committee Assistant), Tes Stranger (Committee Support Assistant) and Rebecca Jones (Media Officer). Contacts All correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the Welsh Affairs Committee, House of Commons, 7 Millbank, London SW1P 3JA. The telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 6189 and the Committee’s email address is [email protected]. Ports in Wales 1 Contents Report Page Summary 3 1 Introduction 7 Our inquiry 7 Ports Policy 8 Welsh ports—operations 8 2 Opportunities for growth 12 The cruise market 12 The market 12 Potential economic impact 13 Barriers 15 Challenges 16 Supply chains 18 Logistics 19 Short-sea shipping 20 Energy Sector 21 The role of government 23 A distinctive Welsh approach 24 Grant Funding 26 3 Infrastructure 28 Policy framework 28 Impact of policy decisions on the freight sector 29 Land transport 31 Cross border co-operation 32 Roads 33 New links from the ports 35 Rail 36 Planning 37 Strategic and land use planning 37 Land use conflicts 39 Environment 40 Severn Tidal Power 40 4 Security and border controls 42 Policy and legislation 42 Threats 43 Risk Assessment 43 Police and border control staffing at ports 45 Milford Haven 46 Co-operation 47 Common Travel Area 48 2 Ports in Wales 5 Conclusion 49 Conclusions and recommendations 51 Formal Minutes 59 Witnesses 60 List of written evidence 61 List of Reports from the Committee during the current Parliament 63 Ports in Wales 3 Summary Ports are vitally important economic resources for Wales, playing a key role in the movement of both freight and people and providing essential international trade links. However, our inquiry has found that Welsh ports are under-exploited resources that could play a much greater role in Wales’s economic development. We recommend that the Government should take action in a number of specific areas in order to draw the full benefit from Wales’s diverse and flexible ports, particularly at this time of recession. The need for a coherent ports strategy Ports policy is a reserved matter falling within the remit of the Department for Transport, but many policy areas which have a significant influence on port operations, such as transport facilities and services, economic development and land use planning, are the devolved responsibility of the Welsh Assembly Government. Our inquiry found that the Department for Transport and Welsh Assembly Government have very different approaches to port development. The former supports an approach that lets the market lead investment, whilst the latter supports greater government engagement. A fully co- ordinated approach to ports policy is necessary to ensure that their economic benefit is maximised and that port operators, local authorities and others have shared and coherent objectives. Steps to delivery Government at all levels must use its powers in a complementary and focused way to achieve the agreed outcomes that will lead to an expansion in the port sector. In this context, we would expect the Department for Transport to follow through its stated commitment to local decision-making in the creation of locally relevant policy and we recommend that the Department for Transport and the Welsh Assembly Government develop a distinctive ports policy for Wales to identify where investment should be targeted to enable the sector to thrive. Role of the Wales Office Given the administrative division of reserved and devolved matters relating to ports, we believe that the Wales Office should play a much greater and more proactive role in facilitating and encouraging co-operation between the Welsh Assembly Government and relevant central government departments. The Wales Office must ensure that it is doing everything possible to represent Welsh interests within Whitehall. The Wales Office does not have the technical expertise to deal with many of the specific issues involved, so a robust and direct working relationship must be established between the Department for Transport and the Welsh Assembly Government. It is essential that the Department of Transport should have a clear understanding of Welsh needs and priorities in order to ensure that the right support is on offer. The personal role of the Secretary of State for Wales in particular—as well as the Wales Office as an institution—is crucial. He must make sure that in this area of policy such relationships 4 Ports in Wales are established, maintained and work well. This is, of course, the key role of the Secretary of State and his team across all areas of Government policy and interaction. Cruise market: tourism and leisure Our inquiry confirmed that there is a significant opportunity for Wales to capitalise on the growth of the leisure cruise market and growing demand for new cruise destinations. Cruise-based tourism can have an enormous impact on local economies, as evidence from successful initiatives elsewhere (such as Cruise Baltic, which brings together ten Baltic countries) has clearly shown. At present, the cruise market in Wales is being held back by the lack of facilities for liners to berth alongside the port. This could be resolved at relatively little cost compared to the economic benefit that might accrue from putting Wales on the cruise map. During our inquiry, we heard of the Celtic Wave project which has attracted European funding for Welsh and Irish ports to work together to market the region as a cruise destination; and work undertaken by the Welsh Assembly Government to study the improvements that would be needed to transform the port of Holyhead into an attractive stop for cruise liners. Steps to delivery Recent initiatives are welcome, but more ambition must be shown in order to exploit the full potential of the cruise market. For this to happen, the Department for Transport needs to fully support targeted investment in Welsh ports, in spite of its historic reluctance to intervene in the sector. The identified investment should proceed now in order to attract cruise operators who have a 3–4 year forward planning period. Understanding the supply chain Most Welsh ports have spare capacity and are well placed to take advantage of changing supply-chain and distribution practices, such as the increased use of feeder ships to transfer goods from major hub ports. By developing short-sea shipping or feedering services, Welsh ports could offer alternatives to road transport, which is environmentally damaging and increasingly time dependent as traffic levels rise and roads become more congested. Steps to delivery The Wales Freight and Ports Group has been working effectively to create a better understanding of logistics chains and the movement of goods and to share market intelligence. This needs to be extended through a co-ordinated ports policy for Wales shared between the Welsh Assembly Government, the Department for Transport and the industry. Department for Transport officials should participate in the Wales Freight Group, if the group believes this would enhance the Department’s understanding of the challenges facing the Welsh ports and wider freight sector. Energy sector Ports also have a central role to play in the energy sector. Milford Haven, for example, has grown to become one of the most important locations for the sector in the UK. The growth Ports in Wales 5 in renewables could provide new opportunities for ports, both as locations for energy generation installations and in terms of the supply and distribution of fuels and equipment. Steps to delivery This requires co-ordinated action from the Government and the Welsh Assembly Government to develop a more strategic approach to the ports of Wales, identifying spare capacity and opportunities for the future. Again, the Secretary of State for Wales needs to play a proactive role in developing such coordination and ensuring that it is maintained effectively in practice in the long term. Renewable energy developments in the Severn Estuary could significantly impact on the tidal regime in the estuary, which in turn could affect the operations of the ports in Cardiff and Newport. Provided that adequate locking facilities are built in, not all these implications would necessarily be negative.