Fight for Portbury goes on
Page 38
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• Portbury is more than desirable socially: it is an economic necessity. This was the opinion expressed by Mr. B. H. Fish, president of the Bristol Chamber of Commerce when he spoke at the RHA Western area dinner in Bristol on Friday. The proposal for a container port in Bristol has already been turned down by the Government despite the fact that Bristol has offered to meet the entire cost.
However, the fight is not yet over. Mr. Fish told his 300-strong audience that the city had no intention of letting the matter rest. He pointed out that one day's expenditure on Concorde now under construction at BAC Bristol would pay for Portbury.
Of existing dock facilities throughout the country Mr. Fish said that in the main they were either out of date or had not been designed to meet the needs of current and pending road transport legislation. He said that while the road haulage operators were providing twentieth-century vehicles, Port authorities were still offering nineteenthcentury facilities.
Referring to legislation, Mr. Fish criticized those who framed it for failing to have regard to its operational feasibility. In particular he instanced the proposed driver's hours and said it would be almost impossible to load or discharge multiple shops economically if these hours were introduced.
There was no need for legislation to direct traffic to British Rail, said Mr. Fish; it was his opinion that British Rail Freightliners would get all the traffic they could handle without restrictive legislation.