Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines has swept the board at the first-ever ‘Cruise International Awards’, held at the Soho Hotel, London on 14th September 2011. The cruise line won the hotly-contested accolade of ‘Cruise Line of the Year’ in these new awards, which attracted some 180,000 votes from readers of Cruise International magazine and keen cruise customers, across 20 categories. The top award was presented to Fred. Olsen by Adam Coulter, Editor of 'Cruise International' magazine, celebrity business ‘guru’ Nick Hewer of TV’s The Apprentice and Classic FM’s John Suchet.

By John Hinton, Elected Dryport Representative, Babergh District Council

THIS month, as we welcome colleagues from Sweden, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Scotland to the Haven Gateway for the Dryport annual conference, we are going to get political. That’s political with a small ‘p’, by the way!

As politicians, our communities depend on the private sector to invest in job creation through port developments and associated logistics, warehousing and transport projects; but the private sector in turn depends on us politicians to facilitate and encourage such investments, through the planning policy we formulate, the way in which we implement it, and our general support.

On day one of the Dryport conference, we will be encouraging politicians from all of the Dryport partners’ areas to exchange ideas; to describe what they operate or don’t operate, and why; to talk about the problems they have come across and how they got over them; to share their views on port and dryport projects and freight issues.

By David Ralph, Chief Executive, Haven Gateway

‘Felixstowe: Contain Yourself’. So reads the slogan, alongside the image of a stack of shipping containers, on a T-shirt recently spotted at a trendy on-line clothing shop.

It’s good to know that Felixstowe, as the UK’s largest container port, is getting the recognition it deserves in the most unexpected places!

Containerisation, with its enormous efficiencies, has transformed the global economy over the past few decades. But this is still a world where one size most definitely doesn’t fit all. Not everything will slot into a nice, neat maritime box and, indeed, not everything that goes through Felixstowe is containerised.

By Richard Morton, Project Director, Haven Gateway

The Haven Gateway’s success in obtaining funds from Europe to benefit the local economy continues!

As Communities and Local Government Minister Bob Neill announced at our annual reception, the Haven Gateway has secured nearly £3 million of European funding towards a £7.5 million project designed to shift about 30,000 containers off the roads and on to rail transport.

The money – £2,998,931, to be exact – comes from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), a €308 billion programme of European Structural Funds across European Union member states for the period 2007-13.

It will go directly to our three-year Low Carbon Freight Dividend project, to support more than 300 SMEs in making important, carbon-friendly changes in the way they transport freight.

By David Ralph, Chief Executive, Haven Gateway

The Haven Gateway’s annual reception provided an excellent opportunity to look back on our achievements over the past year – and it was also time to reflect on ten years of successful and highly active partnership between the public and private sectors, since the Haven Gateway Partnership was first created in 2001.

In the ‘new world’ of Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEP), the Haven Gateway’s strong track record in public/private sector working will be even more important as we plan for future growth and prosperity.

We were delighted to welcome the Minister for Communities and Local Government, Bob Neill, as the keynote speaker at our annual reception. His presence clearly demonstrated and recognised the strategic role the Haven Gateway plays in this sub-region; and, of course, it is always useful to be able to explain our successes, achievements, hopes and concerns direct to the top!

THE Haven Gateway has secured nearly £3 million of European funding as part of a £7.5m project designed to shift about 30,000 containers off the roads and on to rail transport, it was announced today (Tuesday 26 July).

The three-year Low Carbon Freight Dividend project will support more than 300 SMEs (small and medium enterprises) in making important changes in the way they transport freight – with significant environmental benefits.

SMEs in the East of England will be offered a Low Carbon Freight Dividend (grant) of up to 30%, for moving their freight from truck to train, where traditionally they have used only road transport.

The European funding was announced by Communities and Local Government Minister Bob Neill in his keynote speech at the Haven Gateway’s Annual Reception today (Tuesday 26 July). Responsibility for the delivery of the ERDF was transferred to the Department for Communities and Local Government from the beginning of this month (July 2011).

Bob Neill confirmed that the European Regional Development Fund will contribute £2,998,931 towards the project, which is expected to remove at least 11.7 million kgs of carbon dioxide from the logistics supply chain: 7.3 million kgs in the East of England, and 4.4 million kgs in the rest of the UK. The associated environmental benefits, using Defra calculations, would be nearly £3.5 million.

“We are absolutely delighted at the announcement of the ERDF funding,” said Haven Gateway Project Director Richard Morton. “The carbon reduction achieved through this project will be significant within the East of England and, by taking freight off the roads, the project will deliver direct economic benefits to the region.”

A key part of the project will be the Containerised Cargo Carbon Calculator, an online tool developed by the Haven Gateway as a partner within Dryport, an EU Interreg IVB North Sea Region project.

By Richard Morton, Projects Director, Haven Gateway

The Haven Gateway has played a core role in the EU Dryport project since its formation two years ago – and this September we will proudly take ‘centre stage’ when we host Dryport’s annual general meeting and conference.

We are looking forward to welcoming Dryport partners and colleagues from across Europe for two days of discussions and operational visits.

It’s an event that promises some thought-provoking presentations and discussions – because we are taking on the challenge of bringing together the worlds of politics and business. Of course, the Haven Gateway’s earliest foundations were built on close cooperation and communication across and between public and private sectors. The Dryport meeting is an ideal opportunity to compare and contrast difference experiences in the project partners’ own regions.

By David Ralph, Chief Executive - Haven Gateway Partnership

THE A14 corridor – including the A14 road itself and the Felixstowe to Nuneaton (F2N) rail route – provides one of the two routes recognised by the Government as nationally strategic corridors servicing the Haven ports and supporting housing and economic growth. The other vital corridor is the A12/A120/Great East Main Line.

We think we have done well in securing major investment, including twin-tracking the Ipswich Northern Chord on F2N, but the planned A14 upgrading scheme – Ellington to Fen Ditton, with a price tag of more than £1.1 billion, was a casualty of last year’s spending review.

First ICT start up in IM Incubator moves into newly refurbished Ross building as a tenant

Ipswich, UK: Today Innovation Martlesham announced that Disect Systems has successfully moved out of the Incubator program and into the newly refurbished Ross building as a paying tenant of Innovation Martlesham at Adastral Park.

Disect Systems Ltd is a UK based developer of scanner imaging software specifically designed to run on conventional computing platforms rather than expensive bespoke solutions.

The Disect product is a software viewing system for radiology files with an integrated high definition conferencing system for sharing images in pristine quality between multiple locations. This is aimed at the health and education market.

By David Ralph, chief executive, Haven Gateway

EVERY year, the Haven Gateway, together with the CLA (Country Land and Business Association), hosts a business breakfast on the second day of the Suffolk Show. This year we were delighted that the event was sponsored by the accountancy and business advice firm Ensors. With more than 130 people attending on a beautiful morning, it was a glorious place to be.