London Gateway

London Gateway
London Gateway  London Gateway shown within Essex
OS grid reference	TQ728815
Unitary authority	Thurrock
Ceremonial county	Essex
Region	East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	STANFORD-LE-HOPE
Postcode district	SS17
Dialling code	01375
Police	Essex
Fire	Essex
Ambulance	East of England
EU Parliament	East of England
UK Parliament	Basildon
List of places UK England Essex

Coordinates: 51°30′19″N 0°29′25″E / 51.5052°N 0.4902°E / 51.5052; 0.4902

London Gateway is a development on the north bank of the River Thames in Thurrock, Essex, 20 miles (32 km) east of central London. It comprises a new deep-water port, which is able to handle the biggest container ships in the world, as well as one of Europe’s largest logistics parks, providing access by road and railways to London and the rest of Great Britain. The complex will make use of technology to maximise productivity and reduce costs for shipping lines and the logistics industries.

The project, being undertaken by DP World, significantly increases the capabilities of the Port of London in handling container shipping,^[1] and helps meet the growing demand for container handling at Britain's ports. Construction began in February 2010,^[2] and is expected to take several years, with the port and logistics park being completed in stages. The first phase of the port opened for business on 6 November 2013 with the docking of the 58,000-tonne MOL Caledon, laden with fruit and wine from South Africa. While London Gateway is equipped to handle ships as large as the 18,000-TEU Maersk Triple E class, the Caledon, at 3,190-TEU, was not exactly the type of vessel for which the new 'super-port' was planned. Since the Caledon had on previous visits berthed at the nearby Port of Tilbury, no new trade to the UK was involved either.^[3][4]

History

London Gateway is located on the former 1,500-acre (6.1 km²) Shell Haven site, which closed in 1999.

DP World received Government approval for the development of London Gateway in May 2006, identified by Gordon Brown as one of the four economic hubs needed for the regeneration of the Thames Gateway.^[5]

In May 2008, the Department for Transport issued a "Harbour Empowerment Order" for London Gateway, which provided official and statutory powers for the new port and established London Gateway as a legally recognised authority.^[6]

The future of the project was less certain after Moody's downgraded DP World's financial status to 'junk' in December 2009 in relation to the Financial crisis of 2007–2010 and associated financial problems for DP World's owners Dubai World.^[7] In January 2010, DP World announced its intention to seek a share listing on the London Stock Exchange in the second quarter of 2010^[8] and was also given the go-ahead for construction of the port.^[9]

Description

Construction of London Gateway under way, 2010

London Gateway port includes a 2.7 km long container quay, with a capacity of 3.5 million TEU a year when fully developed, being developed in phases.^[10] The port is located on the major shipping lanes serving north west Europe, there by increasing national deep-sea port capacity for the UK.^[11]

At present, the ports of Felixstowe and Southampton are the first- and second-largest ports by container traffic in the UK, with the Port of London third.^[12] Close to Gateway at the Medway Estuary, on the south-east side of the Isle of Grain, is Thamesport, a small but well-established container terminal. Thamesport is privately owned by Hutchison Whampoa, which also owns Felixstowe and other ports. There is also the Tilbury container port on the north bank, upriver of London Gateway, which was previously partially owned by DP World, but was sold shortly before the development initially opened, with a contract formerly berthing at Tilbury.

The development will increase the capabilities, if successful, of the Port of London in handling modern container shipping.^[1] DP World has stated that high-quality architecture, sustainability, and high levels of security and management will be key features of the park and will create an attractive environment for occupiers.^[13]

DP World is planning to invest over £1.5bn to develop the project over a 10-15 year period. It predicts that London Gateway will deliver about 12,000 new direct jobs, benefit the local and regional economy, and assist the government’s Thames Gateway regeneration initiative. In addition, DP World predict that there will be over 30,000 indirect and induced jobs.

Distribution

The distribution park at London Gateway will cover a total area of 300 hectares (740 acres). It will accommodate buildings in excess of 1,000,000 square feet (93,000 m²). Outline planning permission has been granted for a total of 9,500,000 sq ft (880,000 m²).

Road distribution will be via the A13 to Junction 30 of the M25 motorway. Some of the existing junctions have already been upgraded.^[2]

Rail access is available via connection to the Tilbury Loop of the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway line.^[14] On site 25 kilometres (16 mi) of double track access will accommodate trains of up to 35 wagons long (750 metres (2,460 ft)), which will be loaded/unloaded next to the port container handling areas. Rail logistics partner DB Schenker Rail (UK) plan to run four intermodal trains per day (mainly overnight) via Barking and Gospel Oak to the West Coast Main Line. Network Rail have cleared all trains on this route to rail loading gauge W10, the same as the connecting rail access route to the Channel Tunnel, allowing 9 feet 6 inches (2.90 m) high containers to be transported. The East Coast Main Line connection to serve Doncaster and Leeds carries a smaller W8 loading gauge clearance, requiring the use of specially designed low-liner wagons to accommodate the taller containers.^[15]

Construction

Construction began in February 2010,^[2] and is expected to take several years, with the port and logistics park completed in stages. The first stage of construction was a £400 million dredging and reclamation programme, led by a joint venture between contractors Laing O’Rourke and Dredging International.^[16]

The first three of eight new quay cranes arrived in March 2013.^[17] Manufactured in Shanghai by ZPMC, they weigh 1,848 tonnes (1,819 long tons), have a boom which at 138 metres (453 ft) high is taller than the London Eye, can reach across 25 containers, and can lift up to 80 tonnes (79 long tons).^[18]

Policing

The London Gateway Port Harbour Empowerment Order 2008 permits the harbour authority to apply to a justice of the peace to appoint constables to form a police force for the port (and for justices of the peace to dismiss them).^[19] If appointed, they will have all the powers and privileges of a constable within the port area, and if they pursue someone from the port area, then they will retain the same powers of arrest as they would have if they were still in the port area.^[19] The majority of the provisions of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 were applied by the Order.^[20]

Otherwise the local territorial police force is Essex Police. The former Port of London Authority Police now exists only as the Port of Tilbury Police.

The Marine Navigation Act 2013 contains for a provision for the Chief Constable of the territorial police area in which a port constabulary is situated to give permission for those constables to act outside of the port area in relation to port policing functions, whereby they retain the powers of a constable ^[21] The legislation was enacted after it was established that the Port of Dover Police had no police powers to transport a prisoner to a police custody suite outside of a one mile radius from the edge of port property. ^[22] Due to an apparent oversight, this section of the Act would not apply to London Gateway Port Police Officers. The Marine Navigation Act 2013 does apply to Port Constables attested under the Harbours, Docks and Piers Clauses Act 1847, which also provides the constables police powers within 1 mile of port property. As such, there would be little benefit in attesting constables under the 2008 legislation, rather than the 1848 Act, as the Marine a Navigation Act 2013 would not apply. The alternative would be to attest any such constable under both pieces of legislation.

External links

• Official website
• London Gateway - Current site photographs

References