New canal link for industrial traffic gets the go-ahead

WAKEFIELD councillors have given Lafarge Redland Aggregates the go-ahead for a new aggregates wharf on the Aire and Calder canal at the Wakefield Europort facility in West Yorkshire. The new site will replace the company's existing Leeds wharf which is soon to close to make way for a new city centre development scheme.

Located on the site of a former marshalling yard at Whitwood, the new wharf will be used to unload barges carrying processed sand and gravel from Lafarge Redland Aggregates' existing quarry alongside the river Trent at Besthorpe in north Nottinghamshire. The aggregates will be supplied to local concrete plants and building projects in the Wakefield area.

Six people will be employed at the Whitwood site and jobs and services will be secured at other Lafarge plants in the region. More-over, transporting the aggregates by canal will keep at least 10,000 lorry loads off the region's roads each year, a move which is in line with the Government's aim of reducing road haulage in favour of inland waterways.

The Environment Agency and English Nature have approved, in principle, a habitat protection and enhancement scheme for wildlife at the site, and public access will be maintained by the provision of a footpath and possibly a cycleway around the facility.