By Richard Morton, Projects Director, Haven Gateway

Looking back on 2011, one of the key messages from the Haven Gateway is: Another busy and successful year in Europe!

As a core partner in three important EU projects, the Haven Gateway continued to extend its influence across Europe, while also benefiting from substantial ongoing European funding.

In September, we proudly took ‘centre stage’ to host the EU Dryport project’s annual general meeting and conference, welcoming partners and colleagues from Sweden, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Scotland for two days of discussions and an operational visit to the Port of Felixstowe. We took on the challenge of bringing together the worlds of politics and business and asking them to share their experiences and views; the result was some thought-provoking presentations and discussions.

Other Dryport activities included the opening ceremony of the Skaraborg Logistic Center at Falköping. The flagship development of the Swedish Dryport partners, this facility has served as an excellent case study for other partners who are planning and developing dryport projects.

In November, Dryport partners went on a fact-finding visit to Duisburg, the world’s busiest inland port. The visit took in Hutchison Ports’ DeCeTe Duisburger Container Terminal (DCT), and the operations of the port authority for Duisburg.

On ‘home ground’, meanwhile, the Haven Gateway and Babergh District Council, joint Dryport partners, are continuing with our Destination and Origin Study to pinpoint where trucks serving the Haven Ports are coming from and going to. The first results are expected early this year [2012]. The findings will provide the evidence we need to lobby the government for more, and better, infrastructure related to ports and logistics activities in this subregion.

The EU Cruise Gateway North Sea Project held its opening conference in Hamburg in February. ‘Cruise Gateway – towards sustainable growth of cruise shipping in the North Sea’ is a €1.9 million, three-year Interreg IVB North Sea Region project. With our fellow partners, we are looking at ways of encouraging and promoting cruise activity while ensuring that the North Sea Region represents a beacon for sustainable cruise.

In September, Haven Gateway chief executive David Ralph was one of the main speakers at the GreenPort Cruise conference jointly organised by Cruise Gateway in Hamburg.

In the Port Integration project, we participated in workshops that discussed how to connect ports to the hinterland and create sustainable supply chains; environmental challenges; how ICT solutions can help in creating ‘green’ supply chains; and how European transport policy impacts on ports and transport planning.

Port Integration partners have been working on a series of best practice studies, which cover topics ranging from developing inland waterways solutions to promoting environmental standards in shipping.

The credibility and reputation gained through our involvement in these European projects, was an important factor in securing nearly £3 million of European funding towards our Low Carbon Freight Dividend project.

This project, which will be launched in March, aims to shift about 30,000 containers off the roads and on to rail transport by offering SMEs in the Haven Gateway a Low Carbon Freight Dividend of up to 30%, for moving their freight from truck to train (or often this will be a combination of road and rail), where traditionally they have used only road transport.