On the 1st of February 2006 the Port of Felixstowe was delighted to receive the news that the Secretary of State for Transport and the Deputy Prime Minister had granted consent for the Felixstowe South Reconfiguration.

This expansion, driven by rapidly increasing demand for imports, will help to meet the UK’s need for additional container handling capacity and deep-water berths in the coming years.

The Government consent is subject to a number of conditions, the main one being that a legally binding commitment has to be given by the Port to fund external road and rail upgrades, some more than 100 miles from the Port, before construction at the Port can begin.

Such upgrades are outside the scope of normal port operations and cannot be funded by the Port’s usual level of charges for services provided to its customers.

Chris Lewis, Chief Executive Officer, Port of Felixstowe has therefore released an Open Letter to customers advising that the Port will have to introduce an Infrastructure Charge to cover these external road and rail costs beyond the gate with effect from Monday 2nd April 2007. (The full text of the Open Letter to customers is available to download here.)