Freight park chiefs add £5m further investment

Jul 16 2007 by David Bartlett, Liverpool Daily Post

ONE of the major players in a scheme to create an £80m road-rail freight interchange on the banks of the Mersey said the involvement of a new partner was a positive move.

It comes after the Daily Post reported that the scheme could be under threat after Westlink acquired a 100-acre site in Widnes, which forms part of the proposed Ditton Freight Park, and said it was reviewing its plans.

As well as Westlink’s 100 acres, the Ditton Freight Park is made up of 40 acres owned by The O’Connor Group and 40 acres of greenbelt owned by Halton council.

Last night the O’Connor Group said they were delighted Westlink was involved, and their review could mean the park would actually be bigger and better than first planned. Bosses at O’Connor said they were so confident in the scheme they were currently investing £5m in improving their site.

Peter Lea, commercial director of the O’Connor Group, said plans for the park had been on hold while two previously involved companies sold their land and buildings to Westlink.

The sale went through in March, since when Westlink has been reviewing planning permissions already granted to one of the previous owners, Drawbridge.

Mr Lea said: “Everything had been on hold while everything went through.

“Drawbridge were a speculative property developer, they never built anything – they made an awful lot of money out of it.”

He said as far as O’Connor was concerned it was “fantastic” that Westlink was now involved.

“They are reviewing what they want, this means they could need more.

“We are really pleased a company like Westbury (which wholly owns Westlink) is involved in it.”

He said O’Connor’s 30-strong team of back office staff had been moved to premises in Widnes town centre.

The office block will be demolished to make way for larger cranes and new storage facilities as part of the £5m investment.

The park already has a terminal, handling more than 60,000 containers per year in 750,000sq ft of warehousing, but has outline planning consent for 1.8m sq ft of new building, rising to 3.5m sq ft in future.

The aim is to have a mile-long interchange along the Liverpool to London West Coast rail line between Ditton and Halebank.

Guy Myddleton, executive chairman of Westlink, said: “Westlink is particularly excited about the opportunity that the proposed Ditton Railfreight terminal presents for the development of a major railfreight park in the North West, and we are working with our partners at Halton council and the O’Connor Group to bring about this important development”.

Cllr Rob Polhill, Halton council's executive member for transportation, regeneration and renewal, said: “The buy-out is excellent news for the Mersey Multimodal Gateway, as we have a company committed to the logistics operation in Halton.”

davidbartlett