An ambitious new joint Green Freeport bid could attract major investment to Glasgow and the wider region, open up global trading opportunities and create thousands of new jobs if successful, reveals Anthony Harrington
Three of Scotland’s leading organisations, Glasgow Airport, Peel Ports’ Clydeport, and Mossend International Railfreight Park (MIRP) in North Lanarkshire, have got together to submit a transformative bid for Green Freeport status.
The organisations have also been joined by a partnership of Glasgow City Region councils.
All bids from interested parties are due to be handed to the Scottish government by June 20. Ross Nimmo, Head of Business and Planning at Glasgow Airport explains that the bid is the UK’s only multi-modal bid for Green Freeport status, involving as it does, a port, a major rail freight hub and an airport.
Nimmo says that if the Clyde Green Freeport bid is successful, it would undoubtedly unlock significant new investments for the Glasgow City Region. It would also open up global trading opportunities, create tens of thousands of new jobs and accelerate Scotland’s move to net zero.
“We started getting interested in the possibility of a bid just after the UK government first announced its plan for up to ten Free Ports. We looked at the economic zone around Glasgow Airport and it seemed to be a good fit,” Nimmo says.
He reached out to James McSporran, ports director at Peel Ports Clydeport, to talk about the possibility of a joint bid.
“We did a lot of work, honing our proposals. The Glasgow City Deal had already developed some great approaches to ensuring that local communities benefitted from projects. So we had some excellent blueprints to follow that we knew would work and that we could apply to our bid,” he comments.
One of the key benefits that Glasgow Airport expects to see materialise from a successful bid would be to attract more business partners to the airport.
“Glasgow Airport is the base for British Airways’ short-haul fleet maintenance programme for both Boeing and Airbus. Over the course of 15 to 20 days the maintenance department will strip an aircraft down, do all the heavy maintenance checks and have it back in service. That is a great strength here with a lot of expertise that we want to build on.
“Green Freeport status would help us to attract new engineering and manufacturing companies and expertise,” he comments. The Green Freeport bid will also help the Airport to accelerate some of its net zero projects and to explore renewable aviation fuels.
James McSporran, ports director at Peel Ports Clydeport comments: “We were interested from the start and were delighted to respond when Ross contacted us. From my point of view, it was clear that we needed to put together a winning bid so that our major competition in the ports business did not gain a major commercial advantage over us,” he says.
“Also, we have always paid a fair wage and we are committed to net zero, and this would be true under either a Free Ports or a Green Freeports structure.
“We already have a very aggressive net zero target as an organisation. We are changing our vehicles and our heavy lift structures to electric and we are contracting for green energy with our energy suppliers.
“We felt that we needed the support of the local councils in our area for the bid, such as Inverclyde Council. Together with Ross Nimmo at Glasgow Airport, we pulled in the rest of the councils and invited PD Stirling at MIRP to join us in the bid. That gave us a seaport, an inland port railhead and an airport to create a unique multi-modal bid,” he comments.
McSporran points out that the area covered by the proposed Clyde Green Freeport bid includes some of the most deprived areas of Scotland, which would benefit hugely from the inward investment that a successful bid would attract.
Andrew Stirling, the director at MIRP and Peter D Stirling points out the company has been a commercial partner of Peel Ports since 2018, and was very interested in joining the bid.
“We have been supplying a rail service to Peel Ports in Liverpool since 2018, running trains from Mossend to Seaford, Liverpool. The bid is a tremendous fit for us and will play very well with our expansion plans to 2028,” he comments.
At present, Peter D Stirling sends some 75,000 containers a year by rail to and from England, with a further 120,000 being shipped out of Greenock. £3.8 billion goes out between Greenock and Mossend in imports and exports. However, the company has already begun work on the new MIRP which is scheduled to complete by the third quarter of 2024.
Once this is complete some 520,000 containers will be flowing across an all-electric, rail freight service between England and Scotland.
“At present, we send six trains a day to England. By 2024 we expect this to rise to 16 trains and we expect market demand to support 21 trains a day by 2028. This will take a huge number of HGV vehicles off the roads and will cut over 225,000 tonnes of carbon emissions a year,” he comments.
Expanding rail freight will clearly create a major economic benefit for Scotland and for sectors such as the food and drink sector. Being part of a successful Green Freeport bid plays well for this.
“People need to realise that the total value of the goods we transport to and fro between Scotland and England, in those 75,000 containers, is absolutely massive. Plus, the frequency with which these trains run is a huge benefit to Scottish manufacturing,” he concludes.
This article was brought to you in association with
www.glasgowairport.com
www.peelports.com
www.peterdstirling.com
www.mirp.co.uk
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