Sarah, Ken is in fact keen to promote waterways carriage of freight, as are Transport for London. Unfortunately British Waterways have hijacked the West London Canals freight opportunities survey, which given their desire to get rid of the remaining freight interchanges here in Brentford for example, in favour of building enormously profitable flats, means that this conflict of interest will result in no protection for such sites. (They’ve already applied to the Council for demolition consent for the last overhanging warehouses).If only Ken realised that his failure to fully uphold the Blue Ribbon Network policies, (that would by themselves obviate this happening), is contributing to the loss of facilities that could be used for water-borne freight, perhaps we’d see more hope for freight shifting off the roads. Nonetheless, there is great support, with lobbying groups and TfL pointing out just how many lorry-loads could be taken off the roads with a single barge.
Nigel Moore ● 7189d