12.02.18
Council approves construction of new rail freight terminal at Cricklewood
Construction of a modern rail freight terminal at Cricklewood has been approved to support the £4.5bn Brent Cross housing regeneration.
The terminal will be built on existing rail land at Cricklewood, north London.
Without the terminal, the Campaign for Better Transport argues that a regeneration project in the area would not be viable as the construction materials would need to be delivered by heavy goods vehicles (HGVs), which brings added congestion, pollution and safety problems.
In September 2017 the council voted to defer DB Cargo’s temporary application for the rail freight facility, submitting their own application jointly with the company for a permanent site the following day.
Currently around 50% of London’s aggregates are moved by rail, with demand for rail freight services growing.
Each train into the new Cricklewood terminal will remove up to 85 HGVs from the capital’s road network, and will be able to carry enough materials to build the equivalent of 30 houses.
Philippa Edmunds, Campaign for Better Transport’s freight on rail manager, said: “This planning consent sets a crucial precedent which demonstrates that local authorities should support local rail freight terminals based on the wider national and sub-regional socio-economic benefits of rail freight as long as there are adequate mitigation measures to handle local impacts.
“Cricklewood rail lands represent one of the few remaining suitable sites with good rail and road connections, where aggregates can be brought into the capital for use in construction projects.
“The terminal is compliant with national, regional and local spatial planning and transport policy; these operational railway lands have been safeguarded in the Barnet local plans for this purpose for many years.”
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