Heysham Port
Lancashire’s Draft LTP2 says little about Heysham Port in terms of specific actions. However, they have promoted the Heysham M6 Link as an important feature of the Northern European Access Corridor.
TSLM contended that Heysham is in fact a relatively minor port. Just over 4m tonnes of cargo moved through it in 2003, only 9.2% of the Northwest total, and just 0.7% of tonnage moved through all UK ports. (Office of National Statistics 2004).
Peel Holdings have yet to announce their plans for the port, but previous owners Mersey Docks and Harbour had always focused their investment in the Liverpool docks complex.
Heysham Port employs about 100 people directly and supports other employment in associated service industries. In 1999 the port’s General Manager claimed that that port contributes about £4.5m to the local economy. The port operates 24 hours per day with ferries to Belfast, Dublin, Warren Point and also the Isle of Man.
The perception that vast amounts of port traffic congest local roads can be dispelled by simple mathematics.
1998 data suggests that 325,000 freight vehicles used Heysham on an annual basis.
Projected increases will add about 75,000 vehicle movements by about 2007 / 2008. (Lancaster Guardian 18th Mar 2005). Daily flow will then become a projected 1100 vehicles.
Using Lancashire County Council traffic flow projections for the “Do Minimum” scenario in 2010, this means that freight traffic from the Port of Heysham accounts for about 2.5% of the total traffic flow across the Skerton and Greyhound bridges.
Journey times between the port and Junction 34 are predicted to be 18.6 minutes without a link, and 9.4 with it. The time saving of 9.2 minutes for port traffic is insignificant for the Irish freight journey times beyond the Lancaster and Morecambe District transport boundary.