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FREIGHT transport conditions in Northamptonshire may ,soon be improved if the Government takes note of the findings of a Northamptonshire County Council survey. TIM COBB reports.
In an attempt to woo more industry into the county, the council completed a detailed survey of the needs of local industry and as a result is now calling for more Government funding for its comprehensive programme of by-passes and road improvements.
The survey, called A Strategy for Freight Transport in Northamptonshire, was drawn up by the county council, Northamptonshire Chamber of Commerce and Industry and British Rail.
The group approached 180 businesses in the county who used road transport as part of their distribution methods to find out what general improvements they wanted that would help advance their businesses.
From the replies it was decided that the main priority should be for improving the primary road network in the county and the links from this network to the main employment areas and industrial estates.
The group has also called for a better east/west route in the county for long distance and local traffic; a proper link between the A1/M1; and by-passes on major freight routes. Drivers' facilities have also also been singled out for improvement. This would take the form of establishing transport cafes and boarding houses on new roads and a stamping out of mobile canteens and the use of lay-bys for overnight stops.
In addition to the road improvements, the group is keen to implement a road/rail interchange for containerised and non-containerised freight in the Corby/Kettering area. It believes that this would encourage some freight off the roads and on to the environmentally more acceptable mode of rail transport.
Michael Cottell, Northamptonshire county surveyor, said that too many villages and towns were suffering from lorries because of a lack of by-passes. "Most of the industry in Northamptonshire uses road transport," he said. "In fact only 10 per cent of all freight goes by rail."
Mr Cottell said that road/rail interchanges were needed to try and alter this situation. He stressed that the county council did not have an anti-lorry policy, but that it wanted to show industry that rail was a viable alternative.