FTA welcomes British planning reforms

FTA welcomes British planning reforms The Freight Transport Association believes reform proposals for the English and Welsh planning system will aid the growth of the U.K. economy without damaging the environment.
   “The long-term effect of these changes will be to make the U.K. more internationally competitive and to improve the standard of living of the people of this country, without cost to the environment,” said Christopher Snelling, FTA’s head of rail freight and global supply chain policy.
   FTA, whose members move more than 90 percent of the United Kingdom’s rail cargo and more than 70 percent of the country’s sea and air freight, today submitted its response to the British government’s consultation paper, Planning for a Sustainable Future, available at www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1510503.
   The white paper sets out to initiate recommendations from previous studies by Kate Barker and former British Airways boss Rod Eddington to simplify and speed the planning process.
   “The problem we face at the moment is not that too many projects are being rejected, but that decisions either way take far too long and are too expensive,” Snelling said. He pointed out that Southampton Container Terminal's proposals to develop port capacity at Dibden Bay took four years and '45 million ($89.6 million) before being thrown out.
   “If that decision had been reached in one year, we would now be three years closer to an alternative, more suitable development that would meet the urgent need of the U.K. for more port capacity.
   “The government's proposals should address this issue, and give developers a more transparent process against which they can develop their proposals. This will promote the urgently needed investment in Britain's transport infrastructure,” Snelling said.
   The FTA also rejects that the environment will suffer under the proposals, adding that now is the time to focus on reforming the system and not worrying too much about policy details.
   'The debate about how environmental consideration fits into planning policy will come later, when the contents of the government's National Policy Statements are decided,” Snelling said.
   The FTA's full response to the white paper can be found at: www.fta.co.uk/information/keycampaigns/tenyearplan/sustainable-future-2007.pdf.