Harwich Haven will be the third major port development to go to public inquiry in less than a year. A lengthy inquiry into proposals to build a new container terminal at Dibden Bay in the ABP Port of Southampton concluded last November, with a decision expected later this year. Another public inquiry began recently reviewing plans to build the London Gateway boxport at the site of the former Shell Haven refinery on London's River Thames.

With major shipping lines expressing discontent with the UK's limited box handling capacity and against a background of concern over possible relegation of UK ports to feeder port status, the British Government has just published a Project Appraisal Framework for Ports. According to shipping minister David Jamieson who announced the guidelines, they are not designed to speed the ports planning process so much as to help ports present their proposals in a consistent and transparent format.

The project appraisal framework is an initiative arising from the Government's Modern Ports policy document.

According to Mr Jamieson, 'The framework should contribute to making proceedings at public inquiries more transparent and focused to the benefit of promoters, objectors, and decision makers.'

'The intention of the framework is to make the appraisal of port projects more consistent with other modes and with each other and to take full account of the role of ports in promoting sustainable transport. I hope that ports will use it to organise and sumarise material supporting the case for port projects.'

MJ Information No: 18203