Canalside plans aim to revive transport links

PROPOSALS to protect former canal wharves in Leeds have received overwhelming support – and could lead to the waterways once again becoming major transport links.

Leeds Council intends to safeguard loading and unloading areas so they again becoming busy with freight traffic.

The sites include wharves at Stourton and Hunslet that helped Leeds become a major inland port during the Industrial Revolution.

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A council spokesman said: "Leeds is blessed with a remarkably well-connected and still navigable canal network and, while most people now associate them with pleasure cruises and walks, our canals could once again become major transport links."

The Council has proposed to give canal wharves and railway sidings protection under planning regulation to protect them from inappropriate development, such as housing, which deprive the city of sites that could be used to transport goods into and waste out of the city.

A consultation on the proposed Natural Resources and Waste Local Development Framework received an "overwhelming level of support" for protecting canal wharves, said a council spokesman.

Now the Council is doing further work on planning for freight by canal and rail but needs to clarify some land use questions.

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A single barge can carry up to 750 tonnes of goods – taking 35 lorries off roads and reducing the impact on the environment.

Traditionally, however, there has not been sufficient protection for sites beside canals and railway sidings so they have been lost to uses such as housing.

Consultation responses encouraged the Council to approach Network Rail and officers also hope to work with the Commercial Boat Operators Association to identify its members' needs.

The spokesman added: "The Council will work with the owners of these sites and interested parties to ensure that any development is appropriate, and although not all sites may be suitable for longer-term use as freight depots it is hoped that, where possible, these may be retained."

Final proposals will be published later in the year.

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Council leader Andrew Carter said: "These canals once carried the lifeblood of Leeds and we hope that by protecting wharves from development they may once again have a big part to play in our city's prosperity. It is pleasing to see that many others support these proposals as well.

"As alternatives to road and air transport become increasingly important, we believe it is vital that we preserve wharves which could be used by companies to bring goods into and export waste out of our city."

Waterways experts have backed the plans.

Stuart McKenzie, freight and harbour supervisor for British Waterways North East, said: "We have been working closely with developers, freight operators and other partners to facilitate freight transport and explain the benefits of using the canal for freight use.

"The canal infrastructure provides the perfect platform for reducing lorry journeys from already congested roads and is an environmentally sound solution to ever increasing transport problems. Wharves are an indispensable part of this so it's pleasing to hear of the support for these proposals.

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"On average, British Waterways handle just under 2m tonnes of freight per year, of which around 40 per cent is carried on Yorkshire's commercial waterways.

"Successful trials of transporting steel by waterborne freight were also carried out in Leeds last year and we will continue to work closely with the Commercial Boat Operators Association in supporting companies looking to explore these types of opportunities."

Currently goods such as oil, stone, steel, timber and fertilizer are carried on canals between Goole, the Aire and Calder Navigation and the Ouse. Waterways in Sheffield and South Yorkshire are also used for freight.

City's waterway transformation

Leeds's canal system began life in 1700 and enabled the city to become one of the most important inland ports in Britain.

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It was the creation of the Aire and Calder Navigation and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, two of the most impressive waterways in the country, which transformed the city's trading links.

The Aire and Calder Navigation was primarily the creation of the woollen merchants in Leeds together with a number of landowners who hoped to open up an extended market for coal mined on their estates.