U.K. government blocks Dibden Bay container terminal

U.K. government blocks Dibden Bay container terminal    The British government has refused permission to build a new container terminal at Dibden Bay in Southampton, in the Southeast of England, a decision that will likely aggravate the congestion of container ports in the area.
   Tony McNulty, transport minister, wrote to Associated British Ports’ lawyers to say that he would not authorize the project, partly on environmental grounds.
   The terminal project met with substantial opposition from environmental organizations.
   Bo Lerenius, chief executive of Associated British Ports, said his company is “disappointed with the government’s decision,” but would still invest more than '400 million ($724 million) over the next 10 years in other port projects.
   Associated British Ports will now write off '45 million ($81 million) of costs related to the failed Dibden Bay project.
   A report produced for the British department for transport said that, unless substantial new port development took place in the Southeast of England, “the U.K. would have insufficient container handling capacity to handle its foreign trade.”
   An adviser to the department warned in the report that this problem is “likely to start to have an effect in about 2006.”
   Three other container terminal projects in the Southeast of England are still awaiting regulatory approval. They are the London Gateway, Bathside Bay and Felixstowe Landguard developments of the P&O Ports and Hutchison Port Holdings groups.
   The U.K.’s Freight Transport Association said today it was “shocked and disappointed” that the government has decided not to allow the Dibden Bay container terminal project.
   'We are concerned that such a vital economic project should be rejected on environmental grounds,” a spokesman said. The government should consider the benefits to the economy, it added.
   Members of the Freight Transport Association’s Southeast England freight council meeting today predicted freight traffic would instead go to Rotterdam and Le Havre.
   The association believes additional port capacity must be provided now.