£20 million inland port plan

A £20 million plan to create an inland port on the Manchester Ship Canal at Warrington will come before borough planners this week.
Port Warrington is part of the ambitious £50 billion Ocean Gateway project, put forward by Peel Holdings, owners of the Ship Canal, which would link Manchester and Liverpool along the canal and the River Mersey.
It involves refurbishment and development of a redundant berth on the canal to allow the transfer of freight from road to rail and ship.
It would be located alongside the canal, near Moore Nature Reserve and Acton Grange Viaduct.
The site is wholly in the Green Belt – and Warrington planners say the scheme amounts to inappropriate development in the Green Belt.
But they believe the encouragement it would offer to move freight from road to rail or water represents the special circumstances necessary to outweigh Green Belt considerations.
Proposed engineering operations would comprise infilling of the site to levels which existed prior to sand being excavated, re-instatement of a rail freight line linking the site to the West Coast main line, extension of the canal side berth, provision of an emergency access road, open storage, fencing and lighting for a multi-modal port facility.
Strong objections have been lodged by Walton and Moore parish councils – who both fear traffic problems.
The Moore council is concerned about heavy lorries using Runcorn Road.
Halton Borough Council is also concerned about traffic issues and the sustainability of the site because of access problems for employees.
Warrington borough councillor Paul Kennedy says the scheme could prove to be a good idea. But he says careful thought needs to be given to the issue of heavy traffic on what are unsuitable and unsafe roads.